EEPOET 


ON 


THE  STATE  OF  TRADE 

'■'I'.', ' 

BETWEEN  THE 

UNITED  STATES  AND  BRITISH  POSSESSIONS 

IN 

NOETH  AMBEIOA, 


PREPARED 


FOR  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY,  IN  COMPLIANCE  WITH  A JOINT 
RESOLUTION  OF  CONGRESS, 


BY 


J.  N.  LARNED. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE. 
1871. 


3^^ 


l.ommrnc# 


INDEX  OF  TOPICS 


V 


<s 


> 

r). 


Natural  relations 

Tlie  Dominion  of  Canada 

Resources  and  capabilities 

Comparative  area  and  population 

Causes  of  tardy  growth 

Present  trade  with  the  Dominion 

Total  imports  of  the  Dominion 

Imports  from  United  States , 

Imports  from  Great  Britain 

Total  exports  of  the  Dominion 

Analysis  of  Canadian  foreign  commerce 

State  of  commercial  belligerency 

Exhibit  for  seventeen  years 

Balance  against  United  States 

What  Ave  sell  to  the  provinces 

What  we  buy  from  the  provinces 

Distribution  of  the  trade 

A commerce  of  com^enience 

The  reciprocity  treaty 

The  fisheries 

Is  recii)rocal  free  trade  practicable 

A zollverein 

The  transit  trade 

Canadian  and  American  tariff  policies 

Canada  as  a “cheap  country” 

W ages  and  the  cost  of  living 

Comparative  table  of  wages 

Comparative  table  of  prices 

Purchasing  value  of  wages  compared 

The  savings  of  industry 

Accumulated  AA'ealth 

Banking  capital  and  circulation 

Public  debt 

Immigration  and  emigration 

Partial  prosperity  in  the  Dominion 

Commercial  growth  of  Montreal 

Diversion  of  American  grain  trade 

Favoring  circumstances 

Lumber  and  barley 

Trade  with  the  non-confederated  i)rovinccs . . 
Newfoundland  and  Prince  Edward’s  Island 

Manitoba 

Conclusion 


Page. 

5 

6 
7 
9 
9 

11 

12 

12 

13 

13 

13 

14 

15 
17 
17 

19 

20 
21 
21 
23 

25 

26 
28 

30 

31 

31 

32 
34 
36 

36 

37 

38 

38 

39 

42 

43 

43 

44 

45 

45 

46 
46 
48 


r 


$ 


■ ¥ 


-M  l i 


17  051  r-;:  /:^[;i:iMA  IT: 


7*1/  i ' '!:>!  V.‘  ■•  '.; 


v v } 


,M  -liv-'V'  r^.0}’^i  'tn' 


•!*♦! 


IV'''  "'  •■'»"■  ‘.-r’ 

<tu;  ’•  »v 


..i.i. ' 


* " r ■ ” „ \ 

, ,.  . r'R' 

I • ni  •.  • ^ 


;-jci  .;.  .-% 


t'  ■ ■ • ■ '.'  • , '*  ■■'-  «"  '-V 


r 


■ * '^1 f >v  r VW  >V  ''»V. 


7 »/  I I ■ ' ■ ■ » 


5 *-j 

.:  ’‘fl 

' I'S 


-v  'V, 


5 I i 


. )p.  '-.  '■  > ■ 


r.| 


>n 

, %•  ' . , • T: 

~J<  ' • , 


V,  t i>J;r 


m: 


, 1 t 


»t,. ..  .'1  > • 

' ^ I ,v  tiH.  * ij!, <!>;*’  *'•  '>vvii/-»>''' 

V',  • t.r  n.  - .»  ■ ; ^ 


‘T-  r,i  ’ll;  ill*  ■ ' • ■ 


:i  I r - 'il!  (•  1 ••  '. ' i.»  / 

. .//  I ^'Ul  /'.  I - : 

, . ivii  < . %». 


,.  ill  ■ ,if**:<‘-- 
•*  ;•/  ii*  •!  • 


: .6 
■li' , •’; 


>5?^.  • 


Hf 


STATE  OF  TEADE 


WITH 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Treasury  Department,  Office  of  the  Secretary, 

February  3,  1871. 

Sir  : I transmit  for  the  information  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives, 
the  report  of  J.  N.  Lamed,  who  was  appointed  special  agent  under  a 
joint  resolution  of  Congress  approved  June  23,  1870,  to  inquire  into  the 
extent  and  state  of  the  trade  between  the  United  States  and  the  several 
dependencies  of  Great  Britain  in  l^orth  America. 

Very  respectfully, 

GEO.  S.  BOUTWELL, 

Secretary. 

Hon.  James  G.  Blaine, 

Simiker  House  of  Representatives. 


Buffalo,  January  28,  1871. 

Sir  : You  intrusted  to  me,  a few  months  ago,  the  task  of  collecting 
information  in  compliance  with  the  joint  resolution  of  Congress  approved 
June  23,  1870,  which  directed  that  an  inquiry  should  be  made  relative 
to  the  state  of  trade  between  the  United  States  and  the  British  North 
American  Possessions.  The  subject  is  an  important  one,  and  I have 
endeavored  to  investigate  it  with  as  much  thoroughness  as  the  time 
allowed  me  would  permit. 

Between  the  United  States  and  the  British  dependencies  that  lie  ad- 
jacent to  us  upon  our  northern  border,  the  intercourse  of  trade  ought, 
in  the  natural  order  of  things,  to  be  as  intimate  and  as  extensive  as  the 
intercourse  that  exists  within  this  Union  between  its  States  at  large  and 
any  corresponding  group  of  them.  Indeed,  the  natural  intimacy  of  con- 
nection between  the  provinces  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  our  own 
Northern,  Nortw’esteru,  and  li^astern  States,  is  such  as  exists  between 
very  few  of  the  geograi)hical  sections  of  the  Union.  Through  more  than 
half  the  length  of  the  coterminous  line  of  the  two  territories,  the  very 
boundary  of  i)olitical  sei)aration  is  itself  a great  natural  high-road  of 
commercial  intercommunication— the  most  majestic  and  the  most  useful 


6 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


of  all  the  grand  water-ways  of  traffic  and  travel  with  which  nature  has 
furnished  the  American  continent.  The  lakes  on  which  we  border  at 
the  north  link  ns  with,  rather  than  divide  us  from,  the  foreign  border 
on  their  opposite  shores  j while  the  fact  that  the  great  river  through 
which  their  waters  escape  to  the  sea  diverges,  at  last,  into  that  neigh- 
boring domain,  only  adds  to  the  closeness  of  the  relationship  in  which 
the  two  countries  are  placed.  The  territory  of  the  Canadian  peninsula 
between  the  lakes  is  thrust  like  a wedge  into  the  territory  of  the 
United  States.  Across  it  lies  the  short-cut  of  traffic  and  traA'el  be- 
tween our  Northwestern  and  our  Eastern  States.  Geographically, 
in  the  natural  structure  of  that  energetic  zone  of  the  continent  which 
lies  .between  the  fortieth  and  the  forty-sixth  i^arallels  of  latitude, 
the  province  of  Ontario  occupies,  with  reference  to  commercial  inter- 
changes East  and  West,  what  may  fairly  be  described  as  the  key  position 
of  the  Avhole.  The  lower  province  of  Quebec,  through  which  the  St. 
Lawrence  passes  to  the  Atlantic,  is  situated  with  hardly  less  advantage, 
and  in  some  views,  which  take  account  of  the  commercial  possibilities  of 
the  future,  i^erhaps  with  eA'en  more.  On  the  seaboard  there  is  no  nat- 
ural distinction  or  x^artition  to  be  found  between  the  maritime  x^roA’inces 
of  the  Dominion  and  our  Noav  England  States.  New  Brunswick,  as  has 
been  remarked,  is  but  an  extension  of  the  State  of  Maine  along  the 
Bay  of  Eundy,  and  Nova  Scotia  is  but  a peninsula  cleft  from  the  side  of 
NeAV  BrunsAvick.  The  island  xii’OviRces  that  lie  north  of  those,  within 
or  beyond  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  are  a little  remoA^ed  from  the 
same  intimacy  of  geographical  and  commercial  relation shixi  with  our  oaa  n 
national  territory,  and  yet,  to  the  extent  of  all  the  resources  they  possess, 
their  most  natural  connection  of  trade  is  Avith  the  United  States.  As  to 
the  new  colonial  State  into  Avhich  the  British  settlements  in  the  Nortli- 
west  haA^e  just  been  rudely  molded,  and  the  older  but  thinly-x)OXAulated 
X)rovince  of  British  Columbia,  on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  conditions  in  whicli 
they  are  x^laced,  relatiA^e  to  this  country,  may  be  considered  more  x^i'ox)- 
erly  hereafter,  perhax^s. 

THE  DOMINION  OE  CANADA. 

The  four  provinces  of  Ontario,  Quebec,  New  Brunswick,  and  Nova 
Scotia,  forming  at  x^i’esent  the  confederation  known  as  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  contain  a now  estimated  population  of  about  4,283,000,  divided 


as  follows : 

Ontario 2, 130,  308 

Quebec 1,422,540 

Ncav  Brunswick 327,  800 

NoA  a Scotia 300,440 


4, 283, 103 


Total 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


7 


These  estimates  are  based  upon  a census  taken  in  1861,  ten  years  ago, 
and  they  assume  for  all  the  provinces  the  same  rate  of  increase  that 
Avas  found  in  the  previous  decade.  It  is  quite  probable  that  the  result 
of  the  neA\"  census,  for  Avhich  preparation  is  now  being  made,  will  fall 
short  of  this  calculation  in  every  inmvince,  except,  perhaps,  Ontario,  and 
four  millions,  in  round  numbers,  may  more  safely  be  set  down  as  the 
existing  population  of  the  Dominion.  The  two  insular  proAunces, 
of  Newfoundland  and  Prince  Edward  Island,  which  have  thus  far 
refused  to  enter  the  confederation,  contain  populations  estimated^ 
respecth^elj^,  at  110,000  and  09,000. 

RESOURCES  AND  CAPABILITIES. 

Here,  then,  are  about  four  and  a quarter  millions  of  people,  not  only 
liAung  in  the  utmost  nearness  of  neighborhood  to  us,  but  Avith  such  in- 
terjections of  territory,  and  such  an  interlacing  of  natural  communica- 
tions and  connections  between  their  country  and  ours,  that  the  geograph- 
ical unit}^  of  the  two  is  a more  conspicuous  fact  than  their  political  sep- 
aration. Their  numbers  exceed  by  more  than  half  a million  the  people 
of  the  six  NeAv  England  States,  and  about  equal  the  numbers  in  the 
great  State  of  New  York.  In  the  magnitude  and  Amine  of  the  industrial 
and  commercial  interchanges  that  are  carried  on  between  the  New  Eng- 
land States  and  the  other  parts  of  this  Union,  we  may  find  no  unfair 
measure  of  the  kindred  commerce  that  Avould  liaAm  existed,  under  nat- 
ural circumstances,  between  those  people  and  ourselves.  Such  equal 
conditions,  indeed,  would  undoubtedly  have  given  to  the  provinces  in 
question  a weight  in  the  commerce  of  the  North  America  continent  con- 
siderably exceeding  the  present  weight  of  the  New  England  States. 
The  average  capabilities  of  their  soil  and  climate  are  not  inferior  to  the 
capabilities  of  the  six  States  Avith  Avhich  I compare  them,  Avhile  their 
general  resources  are  greater  and  more  Amried.  Ontario  possesses  a 
fertility  with  which  no  part  of  New  England  can  at  all  compare,  and 
that  peninsular  section  of  it  around  which  the  circle  of  the  great  lakes 
is  swept,  forces  itself  upon  the  notice  of  any  student  of  the  American 
map  as  one  of  the  favored  spots  of  the  whole  continent — as  one  of  the 
appointed  hiving  places  of  industry,  where  population  ought  to  breed 
Avith  almost  Belgian  fecundity.  A large  section  of  Quebec  is  at  least 
equal,  in  soil  and  climate,  to  its  New  England  neighbors,  Avhile  it  rivals 
them  in  tlie  possession  of  Avater  poAver,  Avhich  is  furnished  by  exery 
stream,  and  Avhile  it  commands  easier  and  cheaper  access  to  the  markets 
of  the  Avestern  interior.  As  for  the  maritime  i^roAunces,  their  pos- 
session of  abundant  coal  gi\T*.s  theni  one  of  the  inimc  advantages  of  in- 
dustiy  OAmr  the  contiguous  States.  Along  Avith  this  parity,  to  say  the 
least,  in  all  that  is  essential  to  a vigorous  deA^elopment,  the  i)roAinces 
forming  the  Dominion — even  if  Ave  exclude  that  ATist  seat  of  future  em- 
]»ire  in  the  basin  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  Avhich  lies  waiting  for  civilization 
to  reach  it — occupy  a territorial  area  Avithin  Avhich  the  population  of 


8 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


New  England  or  New  York  might  be  several  times  multiplied  without 
increase  of  density.  The  area  of  Ontario  and  Quebec  it  is  impossible  to 
define  with  exactness,  for  the  reason  that  they  have  no  boundary  on  the 
north,  except  the  limits  to  civilized  settlement  which  the  climate  of  tlie 
North  imposes,  wherever  that  may  be.  Practically,  the  limits  of  Cana- 
dian cultivation  and  settlement  were  marked,  until  a very  recent  period, 
by  the  Laurentian  range  of  hills  and  the  broken  spurs  that  are  thrown 
off  from  it  across  the  head  of  the  western  peninsula.  This  barren,  rocky 
fidge  follows  a line  nearly  parallel  with  the  St.  Lawrence  on  its  north- 
ern bank,  up  to  the  vicinity  of  Montreal,  where  it  strikes  away  in  a wesf- 
ern  direction,  indicated  by  the  course  of  the  Ottawa  Piver,  which  is  the 
conduit  of  the  w^ater-shed  of  the  Laurentian  elevation.  A broad  off- 
shoot, however,  of  the  same  primitive  upheaval  is  traced  in  a belt  of 
forbidding  territory,  where  swamp  and  rock  are  intermingled,  from  the 
Ottawa  Eiver  to  Georgian  Bay. 

Up  to  the  present  time  these  forbidding  barriers  have  practically 
formed,  in  both  x^rovinces,  the  northern  boundary  of  Canadian  cultiva- 
tion and  settlement,  which  sx^read  slowly  and  feebly,  without  the  same 
impetus  and  momentum  that  characterize  the  x^ioneer  movement  in  the 
United  States.  Within  a few  years  x^ast,  however,  it  has  been  discov- 
ered, and  now  it  seems  to  be  a well-determined  fact,  that  beyond  the 
Laurentian  belt  there  are  large  tracts  of  productive  territory,  cax)able  of 
well  sustaining  no  very  scanty  x)ox)ulation,  even  when  stripped  of  the 
timber  which  constitutes  their  first  value.  The  officially  x^ablished  re- 
X)ortsof  surveys  made  during  late  years  within  those  regions,  which  I 
have  exmined  with  a good  deal  of  carefulness,  show  great  inequality  in 
the  value  of  the  lands,  many  districts  of  fertile  soil  being  curiously  in- 
termixed with  sections  that  are  actually  or  almost  incax^able  of  cultiva- 
tion. But  these  reports,  if  at  all  correct,  leave  no  doubt  that  on  the 
upx^er  Ottawa,  in  the  basin  of  Lake  Nipx^issing,  along  the  eastern  shores 
of  Georgian  Bay,  and  even  to  some  extent  on  the  northern  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  there  are  very  considerable  areas  that  will  ultimately 
give  support  to  a hardy  and  enteiprising  x^opulation.  Large  tracts  of 
this  new  domain  have  been  set  apart  by  the  provincial  authorities  as 
‘Uree  grant  lands, to  be  given  to  actual  settlers  on  terms  very  nearly 
like  the  terms  of  the  ‘‘homestead  act”  in  the  United  States,  and  under 
the  stimulus  of  that  wise  x^olicy  their  settlement  has  commenced  witu 
some  activity  and  x)romise. 

To  what  extent  the  mineral  resources  of  the  infertile  Laurentian  belt 
render  that  caxmble  of  giving  life  to  industry  and  support  to  a popula- 
tion, it  is  imx)ossible  to  say.  Just  enough  has  so  far  been  discovered  to 
indicate  that  the  mineral  deposits  within  and  on  the  flanks  of  the  range 
may  prove  to  be  quite  an  imx)ortant  element  of  the  wealth  of  the  Cana- 
das. Both  iron  and  lead  mines  have  been  opened  and  worked  to  some 
extent  north  of  Kingston ; very  valuable  deposits  of  xdumbago  have 
lately  been  found  and  ox^ened  j gold  is  extensively  indicated  throughout 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  9 

a wide  region  in  both  provinces,  and,  more  than  probably,  will  yet  be 
found  in  profitable  quantities ; a beautiful  marble  is  already  being  quar- 
ried ; the  copper  mines  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior  are  unques- 
tionably of  great  future  value,  and  recent  developments  go  to  show  that 
the  same  region  is  remarkably  rich  in  silver.  Altogether,  it  may  be 
assumed  that  the  productive  and  habitable  territory  of  the  Canadas  is 
not  confined  to  their  tillable  lands. 

COMPARATIVE  AREA  AND  POPULATION. 

The  commonly  stated  area  of  the  province  of  Ontario  is  121,260  square 
miles,  and  of  the  province  of  Quebec  210,000  square  miles.  The  actual 
area  of  habitable  and  productive  territory  belonging  to  them  may  be 
estimated,  1 think,  at  about  50,000  square  miles  for  each.  Within  that 
area  in  Ontario  the  capabilities  of  development,  making  all  due  allow- 
ance for  whatever  inconsiderable  differences  of  climate  exist,  would 
seem  to  be  fully  equal  to  the  capabilities  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
if  Ontario  had  kept  pace  in  its  growth  with  New  York,  as  there  seems 
to  be  no  natural  reason  why  it  should  not  have  done,  (if  we  exclude 
New  York  City  from  the  comparison,)  the  population  of  that  province 
would  now  have  exceeded  four  millions  instead  of  two.  The  province 
of  Quebec  may  be  fairly  measured  in  the  same  manner  with  the  States 
of  New  Hampshire  and  Yermont,  whose  capabilities  are  no  greater, 
notwithstanding  the  somewhat  more  rigorous  winter  climate  to  which 
it  is  exposed.  A population  in  Quebec  proportioned  to  that  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Yermont  would  exceed  by  not  less  than  half  a million 
what  the  province  now  contains  ^ while  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, populated  in  the  same  ratio  as  Maine,  of  w'hich  they  are  the  coun- 
terpart, would  contain  to-day  a million  of  souls. 

CAUSES  OF  TARDY  GROWTH. 

That  the  four  provinces  of  the  Dominion  do  not  at  the  present  day 
exhibit  a population  of  from  six  to  seven  millions  of  people,  with  cor- 
responding wealth  and  corresponding  activities  of  industry,  is  the  very 
plain  and  unmistakable  consequence  of  the  fact  that  they  have  not  re- 
ceived their  natural  share  of  the  energies  that  are  at  work  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  American  continent ; and  that  fact  is  clearly  to  be  traced 
to  their  isolation  from  the  free  interchange  of  activities,  in  a commer- 
cial way,  which  the  rest  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  communities  of  America 
have  secured  by  their  national  confederation.  To  the  mere  political 
distinction  between  the  dependent  British  provinces  and  ourselves,  or 
rather  to  such  ditference  as  exists  between  their  form  of  popular  gov- 
ernment and  our  own,  I should  give  no  weight  among  the  immediate 
causes  of  the  slower  growth  that  they  exhibit.  The  political  institu- 
tions of  the  ill-named  Dominion  of  Canada  are  scarcely  less  republican, 
either  in  oi)eration  or  in  })rinciple,  tlian  our  own,  and  cannot  reasonably 
'be  charged  with  exerting,  in  or  of  themselves,  any  disadvantageous  in- 


10  TEADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES, 

A 

liuerice  upon  the  country.  Even  as  concerns  the  influence  of  republican 
aspirations  upon  immigration  from  the  older  world,  it  may  be  seriously 
doubted  whether  practical  considerations  do  not  almost  wholly  control 
the  choice  which  the  immigrant  makes  of  this  country  rather  than  of 
Canada.  He  has  been  led,  and  by  good  reasons,  to  expect  that  he  will 
find  in  the  United  States  greater  activities,  wider  and  more  numerous 
o]>portunities,  and  the  stir  of  a more  vigorous  life.  The  superior  vigor, 
AThich  ajApears  patent  to  the  outside  Avorld,  is  as  simply  explained  as  it 
is  undeniable.  From  the  immense  diAmrsity  of  resources  and  product- 
ive capabilities  in  the  vast  territory  that  we  occupy,  with  its  many  zones 
of  climate,  its  many  Auiriations  of  soil,  its  multiform  structure,  its  triple 
seaboard,  its  inland  seas  and  its  great  rivers,  its  prairies  and  its  moun- 
tains of  every  mineral,  we  derive  a certain  mutual  play  of  industrial 
forces,  acting  and  reacting  upon  each  other  Avith  unrestricted  and  per- 
fect freedom,  Avhich  is  wonderfully  cumulative  and  Avonderfully  stimu- 
lating— beyond  anything,  in  fact,  that  has  been  known  in  the  experience 
of  the  world  before;  and  the  secret  of  it  all  is  the  freedom  of  the  diAmr- 
sified  interchange.  The  effect  halts  where  that  freedom  of  industrial 
commerce  meets  Avith  interference.  The  custom-houses  of  the  national 
frontier  paralyze  it  more  than  half;  and  Ave  should  find,  if  we  could 
examine  closely  enough,  that  it  is  in  just  the  degree  that  the  neighbor- 
ing provinces  are  cut  off,  by  their  political  isolation,  from  the  free  cir- 
culation of  the  i)roductiA"e  and  commercial  energies  of  the  continent, 
that  they  have  fallen  behind  their  sister  communities  of  the  same  ori- 
gin and  the  same  character  in  material  jirogress. 

I have  placed  the  subject  in  this  Anew  for  the  xiuriiose  of  suggesting 
the  loss  that  Ave  sustain,  as  a nation,  from  the  unfortunate  causes  Avhicli 
IniAm  stunted  the  natural,  or  at  least  the  otherwise  possible,  develop- 
ment of  so  large  and  so  importantly  related  a section  of  the  common 
domain  of  Anglo- America.  If  our  loss  is  Amstly  less,  even  proportion- 
ately, than  that  of  the  provincial  people,  it  is,  neAmrtheless,  a very  serious 
one.  It  is  the  deprivation  of  what  might  liaAm  been  and  Avhat  might  still 
be  fully  one-eighth  added  to  the  accumulating  momentum  of  the  indus- 
trial energies  b}"  Avhich  we  are  carried  forward.  If  the  same  interchange 
that  exists  between  the  States  of  the  American  Union  had  existed  be- 
tween those  States  and  the  neighboring  provinces,  we  should  now  impart 
to  them,  it  is  true,  the  actiAuties  of  forty  millions  of  people,  Avhile  they 
giA^e  back  to  us  the  responding  activities  of  six  or  seven  millions ; but 
that  is  an  inequality  of  exchange  AAdiich  we  IniA^e  found,  between  our 
Union  at  large  and  its  several  States,  to  be  marvellously  profitable. 

In  the  extraordinary  impulse  of  advancement  that  Avas  given  to  the 
lAroAunces,  and  particularly  to  Ontario,  (then  Upper  Canada,)  the 
operation  of  the  so-called  treaty  of  reciprocity,  during  the  eleven  years 
of  its  existence,  a marked  and  significant  illustration  Avas  afibrded  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  influence  which  limitations  put  upon  the  freedom 
of  commercial  intercourse  betAveen  their  producers  and  ours  exert  07i 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  11 

them.  Unfortunately,  we  were  not  permitted,  upon  our  own  side,  to  learn 
as  fully,  from  tlie  experience  of  that  treaty,  the  value  to  ourselves  of  a 
state  of  freedom  in  the  interchanges  of  the  two  countries.  As  I desire 
to  show  presently,  the  adjustment  of  the  partial  free  trade  established 
by  the  treaty  negotiated  in  1854  was  such  as  to  render  its  operation 
very  far  from  reciprocal  or  equitable,  for  the  reason  that  the  schedule 
of  commodities  covered  by  it,  while  it  embraced  on  the  one  hand  nearly 
everything  that  the  provinces  produce,  included,  on  the  other,  but  a 
limited  number  of  the  productions  of  which  this  country  desires  to  extend 
its  sale;  and  for  the  far  greater  reason  that  the  commodities  made  free 
Avere  almost  wholly  of  a description  for  Avhich  the  provinces  could  otfer 
no  market  to  us  commensurate  with  the  markets  that  the  United  States 
opened  to  them. 

It  was  simply  impossible  that  an  arrangement  of  incomplete  free 
trade  so  non-reciprocal,  so  one-sided  in  its  operation,  and  so  provokingly 
the  result,  as  the  treaty  of  1854  Avas,  of  a sharply-forced  bargain  on  the 
fisheries  question,  could  be  alloAved  to  continue  beyond  the  term  for 
which  it  was  contracted.  It  Avas  justly  abrogated  in  18G0  by  the  act  of 
this  Government,  with  the  A^ery  general  sanction  of  i)ublic  opinion  in 
the  countrA^;  and  yet  there  are  probably  feAv  among  those  aaIio  op- 
posed the  continuation  of  the  reciprocity  treaty  of  1854,  and  who 
oppose  its  reneAval  in  any  similar  form,  Avho  are  not  fully  conAunced  that 
an  intimate,  unrestricted  commerce  with  the  neighboring  communities 
would  be  of  great  benefit  to  this  country,  as  it  certainly  would  be  an 
incalculable  stimulant  to  the  groAvth  of  those  communities.  The  ques- 
tion is  one  of  adjustments.  Free  trade,  or  any  approach  to  naturalness 
of  commercial  intercourse  between  these  quasi-foreign  neighbors  and 
ourselves,  is  impossible,  unless  the  outside  conditions  and  commercial 
relations  of  the  two  countries  can  be  brought  into  harmony  AAuth  each 
other.  That  is  the  important,  and,  in  fact,  the  only  point  of  inquiry 
in  the  matter.  If  the  exterior  relations  of  the  tAvo  countries  Avere  so 
adjusted  to  one  another  as  not  to  interfere  on  either  side  aa  ith  a natural 
circulation  of  free  trade  between  themselves,  probably  not  one  intelli- 
gent voice  Avould  be  raised  against  the  abolition  of  every  custom  liQuse 
on  our  northern  frontier. 

PRESENT  TRADE  AVITII  THE  DOMINION. 

Tlie  provinces  confederated  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  are  tAvo  mil- 
lions in  ])opulation,  as  I am  forced  to  believe,  and  seA^eral  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  in  wealth,  behind  Avliat  they  Avould  noAV  have  exhibited 
had  they  enjoyed  from  the  beginning  free  intercourse  in  trade  aa  ith 
these  United  States.  As  they  stand,  hoAvewer,  they  form  a very  import- 
ant body  of  producers  and  consumers  for  us  to  deal  Avith.  Last  year-, 
according  to  tlicir  OAvn  oflicial  statistics  of  trade,  they  Avere  ])urchasers 
in  tlie  markets  of  the  outside  Avorld  to  the  amount  of  $7 1,251), 487,  and 
they  sold  in  the  same  markets  productions  of  their  OAvn  to  the  amount 


12  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


of  $56,081,192,  (values  in  gold.)  Of  these  transactions  the  Canadian 
statistics  show  less  than  35  i3er  cent,  of  the  foreign  purchases  of  the 
Dominion,  against  51  per  cent,  of  its  foreign  sales,  to  have  been  made  in 
the  United  States.  In  reality,  as  will  appear  upon  a further  examination 
of  the  facts,  the  exports  from  the  Dominion  to  the  United  States  exceed 
the  imports  from  the  United  States  into  the  Dominion  to  the  extent  of  a 
ratio  even  greater  than  that. 

The  following  tables  exhibit  the  commerce  of  the  four  ]3rovinces  of  the 
Dominion  for  the  last  two  fiscal  years,  as  ^represented  in  the  official 
returns  compiled  by  the  commissioner  of  customs  at  Ottawa : 

TOTAL  IMPORTS  OF  THE  DOMINION. 


Statement  of  the  value  of  articles  imported  into  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  entei'ed  for  con- 
sumption in  the  two  fiscal  years  ended  June  30,  1869  and  1870. 

[From  Canadian  official  returns.] 


From  Great 
Britain. 

From  United 
States. 

From  all 
other  coun- 
tries. 

Total. 

1869. 

Quebec 

$19,  626,  636 
8,  .547,  339 
4,  002,  985 
3,  587,  510 

$6, 168,  804 
14,  590, 177 
2,560,023 
2,154,701 

$3,  749,  737 
587,  248 
1,186,  325 
640,  685 

$29,  545, 177 
23,  724,  764 
7,  749,  333 
6,  382,  896 

Ontario 

Nova  Scotia 

New  Eruiiswick 

Total 

1870. 

Quebec 

35,  764,  470 

25,  473,  705 

6, 163,  995 

67,  402, 170 

20,  382,  270 

9,  837,  885 

4,  397,  725 
3,  977,  553 

6,611,  332 
14,  031,  340 
2,  258,  079 

1,  823,  320 

5, 174,  270 
661,  232 

1,  352,  227 
731,  954 

32, 167,  872 
24,  530,  457 
8,  008,  031 
6,  532,  827 

Ontario 

Nova  Scotia 

New  Brunswick 

Total 

38,  595,  433 

24,  724,  071 

7,  919,  683 

71,  239, 187 

IMPORTS  FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Statement  of  the  value  of  goods  imported  into  the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  the  United  States 
and  entered  for  consumption,  (exclusive  of  coin  and  hullion,)  during  the  two  fiscal  years  ending 
June  30,  1869  and  1870,  distinguishing  those  which  paid  duty  from  those  entered  free  of  duty. 


[From  Canadian  official  returns.] 


• 

Dutiable. 

Free. 

Total. 

Duties  col- 
lected. 

1869. 

Quebec 

$2,  910,  004 
3,  119, 169 
660, 192 
1, 104,  383 

$3, 144,  629 
7,  608,  849 
1,  899,  633 
1,  050,  318 

$6,  054,  6.33 
10,  728,  023 
2,  559,  825 
2, 154,  701 

$678,  683 
5.50,  618 
122,  229 
214,  033 

(Intario 

Nova  Scotia  

New  Brunswick 

Total 

1870. 

Quebec 

7,  793,  748 

13,  703,  429 

21,497, 182 

1,  565,  563 

3,  044,  535 
3,912,368 
763,  846 
978,096 

.3,  409,  756 
7,  249, 179 

1,  494,  233 
845,  224 

6,  454,  291 
11,  161,547 
2,  258,  079 

1,  823,  320 

72.3,  497 
674,  271 
119,  768 
182,  712 

(hitario 

Nova  Scotia 

Nevr  Brunswick 

Total 

8,  698,  845 

12,  998,  392  | 21,  697,  237 

1 

1,  700,  248 

TEADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  13 


lOTORTS  FROM  GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Statement  of  the  value  of  goods  imported  into  the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  Great  Britain  and 
entered  for  consumption,  {exclusive  of  coin  and  bullion,)  during  the  two  fiscal  years  ending 
June  30, 1869  and  1870,  distinguishing  those  which  paid  duty  from  those  entered  free  of  duty. 


[From  Canadian  official  returns.! 


Dutiable. 

Free. 

Total. 

Duties  col- 
lected. 

1869. 

Quebec 

|14,  503,  286 
7,  954,  779 
3,  281,  836 
2,  743,  744 

$4,  855,  644 
592,  560 
721, 149 
843,  766 

$19,  358,  930’ 
8,  547,  339 
4,  002,  985 
3,  587,  510 

$2,  374,  446 
1,  317, 253 
593,  958 
514,  098 

Ontario 

If  ova  Scotia 

New  Brunswick 

Total 

28,  483,  645 

7,  013, 119 

35,  496,  764 

4,  799,  755 

1870. 

Quebec r. 

14,  563,  737 
8,  694,  745 
3,  561,  080 
3,  203,  386 

4,  760, 195 
1, 143, 140 
836,  645 
774, 167 

19,  323,  932 
9,  837,  885 
4,  397,  725 
3,  977,  553 

2,  362,  209 
1,  407,  454 
643,  444 
624,  331 

Ontario 

Nova  Scotia 

New  Brunswick 

Total 

30,  022,  948 

7,  514, 147 

37,  537,  095 

5,  037,  438 

TOTAL  EXPORTS  OF  THE  DOMINION. 

Statement  of  the  value  of  goods,  the  growth,  produce,  and  manufacture  of  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  exported  from  the  several  provinces,  {exclusive  of  coin  and  bullion,)  during  the  two 
fiscal  years  ended  June  30,  1869  and  1870. 

[From  Canadian  official  returns.] 


To  the  United 
States. 

To  Great 
Britain. 

Total  exports 
to  all  countries. 

1869. 

Quebec 

$5,  627,  276 
15, 187,  809 
1,  831,  054 
994,  600 

$16,  344,  825 
742,  686 
466,  779 
2,  931,  548 

$23,  546,  054 
15,  930,  495 
5,  031,  859 
4,  814,  896 

Ontario 

Nova  Scotia 

New  BiTinswick 

Total 

23,  640,  739 

20,  485,  838 

49,  323,  304 

1870. 

Quebec 

6,  880,  446 
18,  017,  212 

1,  473,  895 

2,  400,  759 

18,  538,  842 

1,  216,  989 
395,  925 
1,  009,  231 

27,  421,  676 
19,  235,  306 
5,  061,  039 
4,  363, 171 

Ontario 

Nova  Scotia 

New  Brunswick 

Total 

28,  772,  312 

21, 160,  987 

56,  081, 192 

ANALYSIS  OF  CANADIAN  FOREIGN  COMMERCE. 

An  analysis  of  the  foregoing  tables  of  imiiorts  shows  some  facts  which 
it  is  well  to  note  in  passing. 

Of  the  imports  of  the  Dominion,  53  iier  cent,  in  the  fiscal  year  1869 
and  54  per  cent  in  1870  were  from  Great  Britain ; 38  per  cent,  in  1869 
and  not  quite  35  per  cent,  in  1870  were  from  the  United  States,  and  9 
and  11  per  cent,  in  the  two  years,  respectively,  were  the  iiroportious  of 
importation  from  all  other  countries. 


14  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


The  duty-paying  imports  from  Great  Britain  into  the  Dominion  formed 
80  i^er  cent,  of  the  entire  imi^orts  from  that  nation  both  in  1869  and 
1870,  and  only  20  per  cent,  were  of  commodities  admitted  free ; while  but 
36  xDer  cent,  of  the  imports  from  the  United  States  in  1869  and  40  per 
cent,  in  1870  paid  duty,  and  64  per  cent,  and  60  per  cent,  in  the  two 
years,  respectively,  entered  free. 

The  duties  collected  on  the  dutiable  imports  from  the  United  States 
were  at  the  average  rate  of  20  per  cent,  on  the  returned  value  in  1869, 
and  19.5  per  cent,  in  1870;  while  the  duty  collected  on  the  dutiable 
imports  from  Great  Britain  was  at  the  average  rate  of  16.8  i)er  cent,  in 
1869,  and  16.7  per  cent,  in  1870. 

In  other  words,  a much  smaller  proportion  of  the  goods  imported  from 
the  United  States  than  of  the  goods  imported  from  Great  Britain  were 
subjected  to  duty,  but  those  among  the  former  which  did  come  under 
the  Canadian  tariff  paid  at  a considerably  higher  average  rate. 

The  very  large  proportion,  however,  of  free  goods  from  the  United 
States  that  appears  in  the  Canadian  imports  of  1869,  and  with  a slight 
diminution  in  1870,  no  longer  exists.  A new  Canadian  tariff  went  into 
effect  on  the  7th  of  April  last,  which  imposes  the  following  duties  upon 
articles  previously  free,  all  of  them  being  commodities  of  leading  import- 
ance, in  the  not  very  extended  list  of  productions  that  we  barter  with 
our  provincial  neighbors:  flour,  25  cents  per  barrel;  meal,  15  cents  per 
barrel ; wheat,*  4 cents  per  bushel ;’  all  other  grains,  3 cents  per  bushel ; 
coal  and  coke,  50  cents  per  ton  ; salt,  5 cents  per  bushel ; hops,  5 cents 
per  pound;  rice,  1 cent  per  pound.  These  duties,  which  leave  a now 
quite  insiguilicant  free  list  of  commodities,  so  far  as  American  trade  is 
concerned,  were  avowedly  levied  in  retaliation  for  the  protective  rigor 
of  the  United  States  tariff,  and,  by  the  act  which  imposes  them,  the 
governor  in  council  is  authorized  to  suspend  or  to  modify  them,  by  pro- 
clamation, together  with  the  duties  on  fish,  meats,  butter,  cheese,  lard, 
tallow,  vegetables,  and  several  other  articles,  whenever  it  appears  to 
his  satisfaction  that  similar  articles  from  Canada  may  be  imported  into 
the  United  States  of  America  free  of  duty,  or  at  a rate  of  duty  not 
exceeding  that  payable  on  the  same  under  such  proclamation  when 
imported  into  Canada.” 

THE  STATE  OF  COMMERCIAL  BELLIGERENCY. 

As  the  case  now  stands,  the  two  countries  are  in  what  might  be  de- 
scribed as  an  attitude  of  commercial  belligerency  toward  one  another, 
mutually  repelling  and  discouraging  the  intercourse  of  trade  and  the 
profitable  and  convenient  exchange  of  industries  that  are  natural  to  their 
intimate  neighborhood.  Under  the  treaty  of  reciprocity  there  was  a 
large  excess  of  liberality  on  the  side  of  the  United  States  in  the  terms 
of  trade,  and  the  Canadian  tariff  grew  steadily  more  illiberal  and  non- 
reciprocal.  After  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty,  the  conditions  Avere 
reversed,  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  gates  of  trans-frontier  traffic 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  15 


stood  more  open  on  the  Canadian  than  on  the  American  side  from  that 
period  until  the  adoption  of  the  retaliatory  tariff  of  last  April.  Now, 
however,  on  both  sides,  the  freedom  of  trade  is  about  evenly  interfered 
with,  and  the  state  of  commercial  repulsion  between  the  two  countries, 
whose  interests  so  strongly  attract  them  to  intimacy,  is  as  nicely  adjusted, 
perhaps,  as  it  could  be.  No  one,  I think,  can  contemplate  this  situation 
of  things  without  feeling  it  to  be  a most  unfortunate  dislocation,  which 
very  seriously  imj^airs  the  organization  and  operation  of  the  industrial 
energies  of  the  American  continent.  And  a further  investigation  of  the 
statistics  of  trade  will  not  diminish  that  feeling. 

STATISTICAL  EXHIBIT  FOR  SEVENTEEN  YEARS. 

I have  given  the  Canadian  official  statement  of  imports  into  the  Do- 
minion from  the  United  States  during  the  last  two  fiscal  years.  That 
exhibits  one  side  of  the  commercial  exchanges  between  the  two  countries, 
the  other  side  of  which  is  to  be  found  in  onr  own  official  statistics  of 
imports  into  the  United  States  from  the  provinces  of  the  Dominion.  It 
is  proper  to  remark  here  that  a great  many  contentious  arguments 
relative  to  the  trade  between  the  two  countries  have  been  vitiated,  by 
being  based  upon  official  returns,  in  one  country  or  the  other,  of  both 
imports  and  exports^  as  though  the  two  were  equally  trustworthy  statis- 
tics. The  Av ell-known  fact,  howcA^er,  is  that  in  no  country,  and  certainly 
neither  in  Canada  nor  the  United  States,  are  the  statistics  of  exports^ 
compiled  from  the  returns  of  clearances  at  the  cnstom-honses,  to  be 
trusted  for  accuracy ; for  the  simple  reason  that  there  is  neither  the  same 
stringency  of  law  nor  the  same  Avatchfulness  to  compel  an  exact  state- 
ment of  outgoing  shipments  that  is  applied  to  secure  true  reports  of 
the  A’^alue  of  foreign  commodities  coming  into  the  country.  Chiefly  as 
the  consequence  of  this,  the  statistics  of  no  two  countries  respecting 
their  trade  with  each  other  Avill  agree  at  all.  The  discrepancy  betAveen 
our  own  official  returns  and  those  of  the  Canadian  government  relating 
to  the  same  trade  is  further  Avideued  by  the  mixed  values  (in  currency 
and  gold)  that  appear  in  the  export  and  reexport  statements  of  the  former. 

According  to  our  own  statistics,  we  bought  from  the  four  provinces 
of  the  Dominion,  in  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870,  commodities  to 
the  ATilue  ot  830,507,842,  (in  gold,)  and  sold  them  domestic  commodities 
to  the  Arable  (in  currency)  of  810,305,771,  and  foreign  reexports  to  the 
value  (in  gold)  of  83,031,525. 

According  to  Canadian  statistics,  our  purchases  from  the  Dominion, 
in  the  same  tAvelv^e  months,  amounted  only  to  828,772,312,  and  our  total 
sales  to  it,  of  domestic  and  foreign  goods,  Avere  of  the  value  of  $21,007,237, 
all  in  gold. 

On  each  side  there  is  strong  probability  of  the  near  accuracy  of  the 
import  returns,  and  Ave  may  safely  accept  them  as  representing  the 
commercial  exchanges  of  the  two  countries.  The  following  table  is 
compiled  in  that  vicAv,  from  the  official  returns  of  imports  in  each 


16  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


country  from  tlie  other,  both  representing  Talues  in  gold.  It  shows  the 
yearly  amount  of  trade  each  way  that  passed  between  the  United  States 
and  the  old  Canadian  provinces  from  1854  to  1867,  both  inclusive,  and 
between  the  United  States  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  since  that  con- 
federation was  organized.  The  exhibit  is  rendered  faulty  to  a certain 
degree  by  the  fact  that  the  Canadian  returns  are  made  for  the  calendar 
year  down  to  1864,  at  which  time  the  provincial  government  adopted 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  to  correspond  with  our  own ; but  this 
does  not  affect  the  general  showing  of  the  state  of  the  commercial 
exchanges  represented  : 


Imported  into  the  United  States  from  Canada. 

Imported  into  Canada  from  the  United  States. 

[From  United  States  ofiicial  returns.] 

[From  Canadian  official  returns.!] 

OLD  CANADA. 

OLD  CANADA. 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1854 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1855  * 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1856 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1857 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1858 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1859 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1860 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1861 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1862 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1863 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1864, (estimated).. 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1865 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1866  * 

Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1867 


$6,  721,  539 
12, 182,  314 

17,  488, 197 

18,  291,  834 
11,  581,  570 

14,  208,  717 
18,  853,  033 
18,  645,  457 

15,  257,  812 
18,  670,  773 
32,  422,  015 
30,  547,  267 
46. 199,  470 
26,  397,  867 


Calendar  year  1854 . . 
Calendar  year  1855* 
Calendar  year  1856. . 
Calendar  year  1857.. 
Calendar  year  1858.. 
Calendar  year  1859. . 
Calendar  year  1860. . 
Calendar  year  1861.. 
Calendar  year  1862. . 
Calendar  year  1863. . 
First  half  of  1864.. 
Fiscal  year  1864-’65 . 
Fiscal  year  1866  * . . . 
Fiscal  year  1867 


115,  533,  090 
20,  828,  676 
22,  704,  508 
20,  224,  648 
15,  635,  565 
17,  592,  916 

17,  273,  029 
20,  206,  080 
22,  642,  860 

18,  457,  683 
7,  952,  401 

14,  820,  577 

15,  242,  834 
14,  061, 155 


DOMINION  OF  CANADA. 


DOMINION  OF  CANADA, 


Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1868, 
Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1869, 
Fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870, 


25,  064,  858 
30,  353,  010 
39,  507,  842 


Fiscal  year  1868. 
Fiscal  year  1869. 
Fiscal  year  1870, 


17,  600,  273 
21,  497, 182 
21,  697,  237 


* First  and  last  years  of  the  reciprocity  treaty. 

t The  figures  for  the  earlier  years  in  this  column  I take  from  one  of  the  reports  of  Mr.  William  J. 
Patterson,  secretary  of  the  Montreal  Board  of  Trade. 


The  prominent  fact  that  appears  in  the  above  statement  is  the  total 
change  of  current  that  took  place  in  the  trade  between  the  United  States 
and  Canada  in  18G2.  Down  to  the  close  of  that  year^  when  the  derange- 
ment of  currency,  the  inflation  of  prices,  and  the  disturbance  of  indus- 
tries produced  by  the  war  of  rebellion  in  this  country  began  to  work 
their  effects,  we  had  been  selling  to  the  provinces  largely  in  excess  of 
what  we  bought  from  them.  The  aggregate  of  their  imports  from  us 
during  the  nine  years  ending  with  1862 — eight  of  which  were  the  years 
of  the  reciprocity  treaty — was  $172,641,372.  The  aggregate  of  our 
imports  from  them  in  the  same  period  was  $133,230,473.  The  balance  of 
trade  in  our  favor  was  $39,410,899.  But  in  1863  the  balance  shifted  to 
the  other  side,  and  ever  since  the  preponderance  against  us  has  steadily 
and  rapidly  increased,  until  now,  as  the  above  figures  show,  we  are 
exchanging  commodities  for  little  more  than  one-half  that  we  buy  from 
the  British  i^rovinces.  Indeed,  the  exchange  of  our  own  productions 
covers  less  than  one-half  of  the  amount  that  we  are  importing  from  the 
provinces,  since  the  Canadian  import  statistics  cited  above  include  for- 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  17 

eig’ii  commodities  reexported  from  the  United  States  to  Canada,  making 
no  distinction  between  those  and  the  domestic  exi)orts  from  the  United 
States  to  Canada.  Our  own  official  statement  of  these  reexports  shows 
the  following  amounts  going  to  Canada  in  •the  last  two  h seal  years: 
1809,12,858,782;  1870,  $3,031,525.  Making  these  deductions  from  the 
Canadian  importation  of  goods  out  of  the  United  States,  the  exchange 
of  domestic  productions  (since  we  receive  very  few  non-Canadian  com- 
modities through  Canada)  stands  as  follow^s  for  the  last  two  years : 


1869. 

From  Canada  to  the  United  States $30,  353,  010 

From  the  United  States  to  Canada 18,  638,  400 

Balance  against  the  United  States 11,  714,  610 

1870. 

From  Canada  to  the  United  States $39,  507,  842 

From  the  United  States  to  Canada 17,  765,  712 

Balance  against  the  United  States 21,  742, 130 


Comment  upon  the  unsatisfactoriness  of  this  state  of  trade  seems  to 
be  quite  unnecessary.  The  adverse  balance  is  vastly  too  great  to  be 
analyzed  into  commercial  “profits,”  as  an  apparently  adverse  balance  of 
trade  often  may  be ; and  the  mode  in  which  it  is  here  arrived  at,  by 
comi)arison  of  the  imi)ort  entries  in  each  country  from  the  other, 
excludes,  moreover,  almost  all  the  elements  of  such  an  analysis. 

WHAT  WE  SELL  TO  THE  PROVINCES. 

To  show  what  commodities  are  chiefly  exchanged  between  the  two 
countries,  and  to  exhibit  at  the  same  time  the  relative  importance  of 
each  in  this  commerce,  and  the  course  it  has  taken  relative  to  each  dur- 
ing a considerable  period  of  years  past,  I have  compiled  a series  of 
tables,  which  may  be  examined  with  interest.  The  first  table  here  fol- 
lowing is  a summary  and  analysis  of  the  import  statistics  of  the  Do- 
minion of  Caimda  for  the  last  two  fiscal  years,  and  shows  wTiat  w^e  have 
chiefly  sold  to  the  four  provinces  of  the  Dominion,  severall^^  and  collect- 
ively, during  those  two  years. 

2 


18  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Statement  showhir/  the  values  of  the  principal  commodities  imported  into  the  several  provinces  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  the  United  States  during  the  two  fiscal  years  ended  June  30, 
1869  and  1870. 


[Compiled  from  Canadian  official  returns.] 

« 


Quebec. 

Ontario. 

HovaScotia. 

Hew 

Brunswick. 

Total. 

1869. 

^114,  ni 

$3,  862, 154 

$198 

$3,  976,  523 

Sugar,  molasses,  and  melado 

635,  715 

289, 185 

9,  351 

$57,  080 

991,  331 

Meats,  all  kinds 

183,  417 

336,  574 

24,  055 

92,  419 

636,  465 

Tea 

3‘.19,  836 

91,  467 

37,  030 

65.  818 

524,  151 

Cottons 

120,  855 

149,  606 

26,  751 

146, 178 

443,  390 

Hats,  caps,  &c 

137,  484 

94,  758 

22,  921 

22,  757 

277  920 

General  hardware 

26.5,  567 

377, 105 

101.193 

14,  140 

758,  005 

Coal  and  coke 

187,  443 

607,  934 

21,  847 

30, 105 

847,  329 

Flour 

417,  255 

217,  337 

1,  033,  892 

400,  790 

2,  069,  274 

Grain,  all  kinds,  except  Indian  corn 

105,  363 

3,  054,  510 

6, 176 

64,  .597 

3,  230,  646 

Indian  corn 

172,  446 

1,  342,  846 

80,  346 

.58,  519 

1,  654, 157 

Cornmeal  and  oatmeal 

4,  430 

36,  094 

236,  757 

121,146 

398,  427 

Flax,  hemp,  and  tow 

137,  973 

15,  990 

72,  800 

32,  811 

259, 574 

Hides,  horns,  and  pelts 

547;  405 

203,  344 

37,  587 

30,  298 

818,  634 

Tobacco,  unmanufactured 

646,  843 

154, 120 

62,  717 

14,  839 

878,  519 

Wool 

147,  463 

278,  825 

183 

426,  471 

Woolens 

98. 156 

86, 1.53 

26,  799 

140,  091 

351,  198 

Glas.sware 

42,  665 

* 135, 105 

18,  272 

20,  576 

216,618 

Musical  insti'uments , 

50,  772 

111,  .599 

8,  286 

22,  900 

193, 557 

Books  and  other  puhlications 

48,  395 

131,  595 

19,  913 

24,  915 

224,818 

Cotton  wool 

60,  037 

235, 129 

433 

49,  041 

• 344, 640 

Salt 

1,  801 

147, 138 

1, 160 

2,  0.57 

152, 156 

Machinei-y 

127,  329 

253,  528 

57,  674 

90,  578 

529, 109 

Total,  excluding  coin  and  bullion 

4,  467,  650 

8,  349,  942 

1,  905,  960 

1,501,838 

16,  226,  390 

All  other  articles 

1,  .585,  983 

2,  378,  081 

653,  865 

652,  863 

5,  270,  792 

Total  imports  from  United  States,  ex- 

cept coin  and  bullion 

6,  054,  633 

10,  728,  023 

2,  559,  825 

2, 154,  701 

21,  497, 182 

Percentage  of  articles  enumerated  above. 

74 

83 

74 

70 

79 

Percentage  of  grain,  flour,  and  meal 

11 

43 

53 

30 

34 

1870. 

Coin  and  bullion 

157,  041 

2,  869,  793 

3,  026,  834 

Sugar,  molasses,  &c 

444,  681 

404,  593 

23,  426 

61,  948 

934,  648 

Meats 

101,  868 

338,  834 

19,  311 

60,  672 

520,  685 

Tea 

684,  895 

178,  875 

29,  443 

79,  803 

973,  016 

Cottons 

141,  552 

148,  743 

33,  451 

45,  692 

369,  438 

Hats,  caps.  &c 

120,  870 

149,  366 

29,  051 

36,  204 

335,  491 

General  hardware  and  stoves 

300,  221 

423,  931 

124.  520 

27,  348 

876.  020 

Coal  and  coke 

208,  361 

665,139 

1,  673 

31,  886 

898,  059 

Flour 

117,  843 

41,  962 

736,  261 

361,333 

1,  257,  399 

Grain,  all  except  Indian  corn 

250, 199 

4, 103,  626 

43,  361 

2,  866 

4,  460,  052 

Indian  corn 

14,  427 

375,  290 

1.5,  045 

16,  227 

420,  989 

Cornmeal  and  oatmeal 

409 

14,  528 

220,  740 

.53,  293 

288.  970 

Flax,  hemp,  and  tow 

139,  882 

25,  223 

332 

21,  752 

187, 189 

Hides,  horns,  and  pelts 

694,  *496 

306,  493 

51,  616 

67,  740 

1, 120,  345 

Tobacco,  unmanitfactured 

474,  438 

247,  994 

73,  259 

8,  832 

804,  523 

Wool 

131,  179 

277,  804 

59 

4,  183 

413,  215 

M'^oolens 

57,  977 

56,  672 

19,  9.56 

60,  813 

19.5,  418 

Glassware 

41,016 

123,  628 

18,  240 

22,  344 

205.  228 

IMusical  irKstruments 

54,  541 

99,  23t; 

6,  959 

30,  807 

191.  543 

Books,  <fcc 

43,  636 

148, 159 

23,  540 

2(),  525 

241.860 

Cotton  wool 

85, 173 

268,  41 1 

189 

65,  271 

419,  044 

Salt 

1,159 

67,  951 

1,065 

1,  577 

71,  752 

Engines  and  machinery 

141,  054 

231,  669 

23,  808 

81,  .545 

478,  076 

Total,  excluding  coin  and  bullion 

4,  249,  877 

8,  749. 127 

1,  495,  305 

1, 168,  661 

15,  662,  970 

All  other  articles 

2,  204,414 

2,  412,  420 

762,  774 

654,  6.59 

6,  034,  267 

Total  imports  from  United  States,  except 

1 

coin  and  bullion 

6,  454,  291 

11, 161,  547 

2,  258,  079 

1,823,320 

21,  697,  237 

Percentage  of  articles  enumerated  above. 

66 

78 

66 

64 

• 72 

Percentage  of  grain,  flour,  and  meal 

6 

41 

45 

24 

29 

TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  19 

One  of  the  larger  items  {i.  e.,  tlie  item  of  tea)  in  the  foregoing 
list  of  twenty-two  commodities  or  classes  of  commodities,  which,  to- 
gether, make  np  three-fonrths  of  our  exports  to  the  provinces,  is  a for- 
eign article,  simply  conveyed  through  American  hands,  in  bond,  to  the 
provincial  consumers.  Some  part  of  other  items  in  the  list  belongs  in 
the  same  ca  egory  of  foreign  reexports.  When  these  are  allowed  for, 
the  range  of  the  Canadian  market  for  American  in^odnctions  appears  to 
be  lamentably  limited  and  almost  confined  to  the  rawest  products  of 
agriculture,  with  hardly  an  apitreciable  opening  for  the  benefit  of  our 
skilled  labor  in  any  department ) and  this,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  nearest 
neighbors  that  we  have  upon  the  globe. 

1 have  found  it  impossible  to  give,  for  the  provinces  at  large,  a com- 
parative statement  like  the  above,  embracing  any  such  period  as  is  nec- 
essary for  an  historical  exhibit  of  the  course  of  trade  ; but  the  following 
table  approximates  that  exhibit.  It  shows  the  value  of  a few  of  the 
infincipal  articles  imported  into  old  Canada  (Ontario  and  Quebec)  dur- 
ing the  fiscal  year  18GI-’65,  the  last  full  year  of  the  reciprocity  treaty, 
compared  with  the  imports  of  the  same  articles  in  the  fiscal  years 
1808,  1869,  and  1870. 


Statement  of  the  values  of  a few  principal  articles  imported  into  ^'old  CaruuM^  from  the  United 

States  for  several  years. 


Articles. 

lS64-’65. 

1867-’68. 

1868-’69. 

1869-70. 

Coal 

$544,  511 
88,  786 
120,  897 
690,  124 
3,  584,  405 
265,  000 
36,  622 
876,  968 
277,  007 
174,  071 

$791,  998 
213, 194 
147.  866 
94,  444 
3.  605,  998 
1,  071,  999 
47,  865 
230,  332 
450,  288 
253,  736 

$795,  377 
295, 166 
153,  963 
634,  592 
4,  675,  165 
750,  749 
40,  524 
519,  991 
800,  903 
426,  288 

$864,  500 
353,  584 
165, 105 
159,  805 
4,  413,  825 
1,  000,  989 
14,  937 
440,  702 
722,  432 
400,  983 

Cotton,  wool 

Flax,  liemp,  and  tow,  unmanufactured 

Flour 

Graiu,  all  kinds 

Hides,  horns,  and  pelts  

Indian  meal  and  oatmeal 

^feat,  all  kinds 

Tobacco,  unmanufactured 

Wool 

WHAT  WE  BUY  FROM  THE  PROVINCES. 

The  return  trade,  or  what  we  have  chiefly  bought  from  the  provinces, 
can  be  exhibited  more  comprehensively,  in  history  at  least,  as  will  be 
seen  in  the  table  following,  which  shows  the  values  of  the  leading  arti- 
cles im})orted  into  the  United  States  from  all  the  British  Possessions  in 
Xorth  America  during  a series  of  years.  The  series  cannot  be  made  as 
complete  as  I should  wisli,  for  the  reason  that  articles  imported  under 
the  reciprocity  treaty  were  not  discriminated  for  several  years  in  the 
official  trade  records  of  this  Government. 


20  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Comparative  statement  for  several  years  before,  during,  and  since  the  reeiprocity  treaty,  of  the 
value  of  the  principal  articles  imported  into  the  United  States  from  the  British  jSo)  th 
American  Possessions. 


1854. 

1855. 

1863. 

1865. 

1867. 

1869. 

Wood  and  niaunfactures  of 
wood,  (except  cabinet  wood) 

Animals,  living 

W'heat 

Plour 

Barley 

Oats - 

Bye - 

Products  of  fisheries 

Coal 

Provisions  and  tallow 

Butter 

Wool,  raw  and  fieece 

Hides  and  skins 

Potatoes  

Purs  and  fur  skins 

Gypsum,  nnground 

Pig  iTOii 

$753, 169 
73,  821 

2,  069,  070 

1,  792,  789 

5,  569 
37, 108 
202 
1,  004,  468 
254,  774 
4,  431 
126,  811 
69,  080 
34,  729 
88,  405 
13, 920 
106,114 
no,  840 

$820,959 
42,126  1 
1,441,397  1 
1,849,109 
90,822  I 
19,075  1 
32,601  1 
833,361 
243,  784 

4,  038 
84,  773 
13,  890 
38,  592 

129,  076 

5,  977 
107, 136 
109,  882 

$3,  203,  906 

1,  351, 173 

1,  050,  803 
2, 137,  610 

1,  524,  221 

1,  418,  723 
12,  577 
736,  549 
757,  094 
150,  782 
326,  634 
781,  867 
137, 113 
147,  380 
! 143, 133 

1 25, 882 

460, 026 
j 6,  536,  478 

$4,  887,  589 

5,  503,  318 

1,  694,  916 

2,  970,  348 

4,  093,  202 
2,  216,  722 

72,  999 
2,  213,  384 
1,  223,  981 
851,344 
668,  917 
1,  527,  275 
228,  090 

214,  622 
61,439 
86,  320 
415,  398 
4,  044,  065 

$6,  431,  058 

1,  902,  960 

3,  262,  8.59 

1,  765,  285 

2,  012,  547 
257,  085 
149,  361 

2,  054,  646 
925,  447 
84,  500 
648, 102 
201,083 
81,  805 
62,  238 
133,  403 
94,  900 
204,  345 
167,  207 
8,  560, 173 

$7, 170,  339 

3,  471,  580 
1,  673,  629 

446,  003 

4,  624,  320 
143, 190 
157,  731 

1,505,  299 
758,  588 

1,  429,  349 

715,  369 
435,  507 
42,  045 
239, 104 
133,  310 
381, 192 
45,  569 

2,  796,  548 

Coin  and  bullion 

142,  602 

18,  445 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  TRADE. 


The  fact  that  in  our  trade  with  the  provinces  the  interest  of  the  East- 
ern and  Middle  States  is  almost  wholly  that  of  buyers,  while  the  inter- 
est of  the  Western  States  is  almost  wholly  that  of  sellers,  could  haidly 
escape  the  notice  of  any  one  who  examines  the  foregoing  tables.  If  we 
examine  by  customs  districts  the  returns  made  for  the  last  fiscal  year, 
of  imports  from  and  domestic  exports  and  foreign  reexports  to  the  Brit- 
ish American  provinces,  we  find  the  distribution  of  the  tiade  to  be  in 
the  following  proportions : 

Per  cent. 


Imports  in — 

Yermont  district 

Oswego  district 

I^iagara  (Suspension  bridge)  district 

Buffalo  district 

Champlain  district 

Boston  district 

All  other  New  England  districts. . . 

Oswegatchie  (Ogdensburg) - 

All  other  collection  districts 

Domestic  exports  from — 

Chicago 

Milwaukee 

Toledo 

Port  Huron 

Vermont 

Boston 

Detroit 

Cleveland 

All  other  ports 


27.1 
17.  6 
14.7 

8.7 
G.O 
4.  G 
4.  G 

3.8 
12.9 

13.5 

13.5 

9.5 

9.9 
9.3 

8.9 
G.  1 

5.9 
23.4 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  21 


Per  cent. 

Foreign  reexports  from — 


New  York ol.  9 

Portland 23.  0 

Boston 13.  G 

All  other  ports 10.  0 


A COMMERCE  OF  CONVENIENCE. 

To  a remarkable  extent  our  present  trade  with  the  provinces  is  what 
might  be  characterized  as  a pure  commerce  of  convenience,  incident 
merely  to  the  economical  distribution  of  products  which  are  common  to 
both  conntries.  We  exchange  Avitli  them  almost  equal  quantities  of  the 
cereals,  and  almost  equal  quantities,  on  an  average,  of  Hour.  Except  so 
far  as  concerns  the  barley  that  we  buy  from  them  and  the  Indian  corn  that 
we  sell  to  them,  this  trade  originates  on  neither  side  in  any  necessity, 
but  is  chiefly  a matter  of  simple  convenience,  of  economy  in  carriage,  or 
of  diversiflcation  in  the  qualities  of  grain.  Similarly,  and  for  the  like 
reason,  we  exchange  with  them  almost  equal  quantities  of  coal.  We 
sell  them  a certain  quantity  of  hides  and  skins,  and  bay  half  that  quan- 
tity of  the  same  articles  back  from  them.  On  the  other  hand,  they  sell 
us  provisions  and  wool,  and  buy  our  iirovisions  and  wool  to  half  the 
amount  in  return.  Not  less  than  one- third,  probably,  of  the  trade  now 
carried  on  between  the  United  States  and  the  neighboring  provinces  is 
of  that  character,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  kept  up  with  so  little  diminu- 
tion, notwithstanding  the  imposition  of  duties  on  both  sides  of  the  fron- 
tier, is  signiflcant  of  the  value  of  the  advantages  that  are  found  in  it. 

THE  EECIPEOCITY  TEEATY. 

The  narowness  of  the  range  of  commodities  within  which  the  bulk  of 
the  trafflc  between  the  two  countries  is  now  restricted  has  already  been 
pointed  out  as  the  conspicuous  feature  of  this  commerce  in  its  present 
state.  It  goes  very  little  beyond  the  rawest  products  of  agriculture,  (in- 
cluding animal  food  as  such,)  and  out  of  this  fact  there  follows,  as  an 
inevitable  consequence,  the  inequality  which  we  And  in  the  exchanges — 
the  heavy  excess  of  our  importations  from  the  provinces  over  what  we 
export  to  them;  since  the  trade,  confined  to  an  interchange  of  the  same 
kind  of  commodities,  must  be  pretty  much  in  the  ratio  of  forty  millions 
of  consumers  on  one  side  to  four  millions  on  the  other.  The  old  treaty 
of  so-called  reciprocity  contributed  nothing  directly,  and  very  little  in- 
directly, to  the  rectification  of  this  commercial  ineciuity,  and  for  that 
reason  it  Avas  a fraud  upon  the  United  States.  It  established  free  trade 
between  the  United  States  and  the  British  North  American  provinces 
in  the  following  specified  articles,  and  in  thovse  only  : 

Grain,  Hour,  and  brcadstnffs  ; animal, s of  all  kind.s  ; ashes;  frc,sh,  snadeed,  and  salted 
meats;  timber  and  lumber  of  all  kinds,  round,  hewed,  and  sawed  and  nnmannfaetnred  ; 
cotton,  wool,  seeds  and  vegetabhis;  nndi'ied  fnuts,  dried  fruit ; fish  of  all  kind.s;  i)ro- 
dnets  offish  and  all  the  creatures  living  in  the  water;  poultry;  eggs;  hides,  fiir.s,  skins. 


22  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


or  tails,  undressed ; stone  or  marble  in  its  crude  or  unwronglit  state;  slate;  butter, 
cheese,  tallow  ; ores  of  metals  of  all  kinds;  coal;  unmanufactured  tobacco  ; pitch,  tar, 
turpentine  ; firewood  ; plants,  shrubs,  trees  ; j^elts  ; wool ; fish  oil ; rice  and  broom-corn  ; 
barks,  gypsum,  ground  and  unground ; wrought  or  unwrought  burr  and  grindstones  ; 
dyestuffs  ; 11  ax,  hemp,  and  tow,  unmanufactured  ; rags. 

two  or  three  exceptions  only,  these  are  coininodities  which  both 
countries  produce,  and  with  reference  to  which,  of  course,  the  freedom 
of  the  markets  of  the  United  States,  containing  ten  times  their  popula- 
tion, was  of  vastly  more  value  to  the  provinces  than  the  freedom  of  their 
markets  could  possibly  be  to  the  rival  producers  of  the  United  States. 
Moreover,  the  schedule  of  raw  commodities  covered  by  the  treaty  em- 
braced, on  the  one  hand,  absolutely  every  product  of  the  provinces  for 
which  they  sought  a foreign  market,  while  it  included,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  products  of  but  one  department  of  the  more  varied  industries 
of  this  country.  How  it  operated,  so  far  as  our  trade  with  the  old  Cana- 
dian provinces  is  concerned,  may  be  exactly  shown  by  comparing  the 
statistics  of  free  and  dutiable  imports  in  each  country  from  the  other 
during  the  period  of  the  existence  of  the  treaty  : 


Statement  compiled  from  the  official  returns  in  the  United  States  and  in  Canada,  shoicinej  the 
imports  of  each  country  from  the  other,  free  and  dutiable,  during  the  existence  of  the  treaty 
of  reciprocity. 


United  States  imports  from  Canada. 

official  returns.] 

[From  U.  S. 

Canadian  imports  from  the  United  States.  [ From 
Canadian  official  returns,  t ] 

Eiscal  year. 

Dutiable. 

Free. 

Calendar  year. 

Dutiable. 

Free. 

1855  

$5,  305,  818 
640,  375 
691,  097 
313,  952 

$6,  876,  496 

16,  847,  822 

17,  600,  737 
11,267,  618 

1855  

Ill,  449,  472 
12,  770,  924 
9,  966,  428 
8,  473,  607 

|9,  379,  204 
9,  933,  584 
10,  258,  220 
7, 161,  958 
8,  556,  545 

1856  

1856  

1857  

1857  

1858  

1858  

1859 

504,  969 
434,  532 

13,  703,  748 
18,  418,501 
18,-287,  217 
15,  030,  753 
18,  245,  638 
31,  260.  034 

1859  

9,  036,  371 

8,  532,  544 

I860  

1860  

8,  740,  485 

1861 

358,  240 
227,  059 

1861  

8,  346,  633 
6, 128,  783 
3,  974,  396 
2, 177,  003 

11,  859,  447 

1862 

1862  

16,  .514,  077 

1863  

425, 135 
1,161,981 

1863  

14,  483,  287 
5,  775,  398 
10,  829,  351 

1864* 

1864,  (first  half) 

1865  

748,  374 
3,  744,  643 

29,  798,  893 

1865,  (fiscal  year) 

3,  991,  226 

1866  

42,  454,  827 

1866,  (fiscal  year) 

4,  362, 167 

10,  880,  667 

Totals 

14,  556, 175 

239,  792,  284 

Totals 

89,  209,  554 

124,  372,  223 

* Estimated  Canadian  proijortion  of  trade  with  the  British  Xorth  American  Possessions,  not  discrimina- 
ted in  the  returns  for  1864. 

t These  figures  are  taken  from  a table  compiled  by  the  secretary  of  the  Montreal  Board  of  Trade,  Mr. 
William  J.  Patterson. 

The  trade  represented  in  the  columns  of  free  goods,  on  the  two  sides 
of  the  foregoing  table,  is,  of  course,  the  trade  in  which  the  operation  of 
the  reciprocity  treaty  is  to  be  looked  for.  With  the  traffic  in  duty-pay- 
ing commodities,  which  was  carried  on  wholly  outside  of  its  provisions, 
the  treaty  had  nothing  to  do,  except  so  far  as  that  independent  com- 
merce was  indirectly  stimulated  by  the  activities  to  which  the  treaty 
gave  direct  encouragement.  The  actual  treat}*  trade,  therefore,  which 
occurred  between  the  two  countries  during  the  period  of  the  existence 
of  the  convention  of  1854,  shows  an  inecpiality  of  exchanges  very  nearly 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  23 

ill  tbe  iiroportion  of  two  to  one.  Two  biiiidred  aud  tbirty-nine  millions 
of  dollars’ worth  of  Oanadian  products  found  a free  market  in  tbe  United 
States,  under  tbe  provisions  of  tbe  treaty,  against  one  bundred  and 
twenty-four  millions  of  American  products  for  wbicb  tbe  treaty  opened 
a free  market  in  tbe  Canadas.  Of  tbe  total  Canadian  commodities  sold 
in  tbe  United  States  during  tbe  twelve  years’  period,  94  per  cent,  came 
free  and  but  (y  per  cent,  paid  duty,  while  58  per  cent,  only  of  the  Amer- 
ican commodities  sold  in  Canada  passed  free  to  their  market,  and  42  per 
cent.,  or  about  half,  paid  tribute  to  tbe  custom-houses  of  tbe  provincial 
government.  Moreover,  tbe  entire  sales  from  this  country  to  Canada — 
free  goods  and  dutiable  goods,  domestic  jiroducts  and  foreign  reex- 
ports— altogether  aggregated  less  for  the  twelve  years  by  $20,000,000, 
than  the  free  goods  wTiicb  Canadian  producers  were  enabled  by  tbe 
treaty  to  sell  in  the  United  States. 

This  was  certainly  very  far  from  being  an  arrangement  of  reciprocal 
free  trade,  and  no  statistical  ingenuity,  even  taking  advantage  of  tbe 
imperfect  export  showing  of  official  returns  in  either  country,  could  ever 
make  the  treaty  appear  otherwise  tlian  a badly  one-sided  bargain  so  far 
as  its  commercial  stipulations  were  concerned.  Whether  tbe  bsbery 
l)rivileges  and  tbe  freedom  of  the  navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  wbicb 
were  throAvn  as  make- weights  into  tbe  scale,  approximately  constituted 
an  equivalent  for  tbe  excess  of  advantage  in  trade  that  was  gained  by 
the  x>rovinces,  is  a question  about  wbicb  some  differences  of  oinnion 
have  existed.  It  is  certain  that  the  i:>rivilege  of  navigating  tbe  St. 
Lawrence  remained  an  almost  unused  privilege  during  tbe  whole  term 
of  tbe  treaty.  How  far  it  might  be  made  valuable,  by  an  enlargement 
of  tbe  Welland  and  St.  Lawrence  canals,  I shall  not  undertake  to  dis- 
cuss. 

THE  EISHEEIES. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  fisheries,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  tbe  greater 
freedom  wbicb  our  fishermen  enjoyed  under  tbe  treaty,  in  British  waters 
and  at  tbe  provincial  ports,  was  of  importance  to  them.  But  it  may 
seriously  be  doubted  whether  tbe  worth  of  all  that  they  gained,  over 
and  above  what  justly  belonged  to  tbein  before,  and  what  justly  belongs 
to  them  now,  under  prior  treaties,  was  greater  than  the  worth  of  tbe 
freedom  of  tbe  markets  of  tbe  United  States  to  tbe  people  of  tbe  mari- 
time provinces  alone.  It  would  seem  that  a full  equivalent  for  our  fish- 
ing privileges  was  given  to  those  provinces  to  whom  belong  whatever 
rights  of  xmoprietorsbip  there  are  in  tbe  coast-fishing  grounds,  .and 
that  all  tbe  enormous  unreciprocated  trading  advantages  given  to  tbe 
Canadas  in  tbe  bargain  were  a jnire  gratuity.  Under  tbe  operation  of 
tbe  treaty  tbe  maritime  provinces  increased  tbe  sale  in  our  markets  of 
tbe  products  of  their  own  fishing  from  $1,004,408  in  4854  to  $2,213,384 
in  4805.  Neither  their  fishing  industries  nor  their  fisheries  sustained 
any  detriment  from  tbe  admission  of  American  fishermen  within  tbe 


24  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


tliree-mile  inshore  line,  while  they  profited  to  no  small  extent  from  the 
selling  of  supplies  to  them.  How  much  of  actual  profit  the  New  Eng- 
land fishermen  found  in  the  privilege  of  the  inshore  fisheries,  to  offset 
the  accompanying  competition  of  the  provincial  fishermen  with  them  in 
their  own  home  markets,  it  is  hard  to  estimate,  since  our  statistics  are 
lamentably  deficient  in  ‘facts  bearing  upon  the  subject.  Apparently, 
however,  the  value  of  the  treaty  to  them  was  found  more  in  the  relief 
that  it  afforded  from  the  annoyance  and  harassing  application  of  pro- 
vincial regulations,  than  in  the  yield  of  the  fishing  grounds  to  which 
they  were  admitted  by  it.  At  all  events,  the  records  of  the  enrolled  ton- 
nage employed  in  the  mackerel  and  cod  fisheries  show  no  stimulation 
of  the  business  during  the  period  of  the  reciimocity  treaty,  but  unmis- 
takably the  reverse,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  statement  below,  taken  from 
official  sources : ^ 

Statement  of  the  enrolled  tonnage  employed  in  the  cod  and  maclcerel  fisheries  from  1852  to 

1869,  inclusive.^ 


Tears. 

Cod  fishery. 

Mackerel  fish- 
ery. 

Tears. 

Cod  fishery. 

1 Mackerel  fish- 
ery. 

1852  

102,  659 

109,  227 
102  194 
102,  927 

95,  816 
104,  572 

110,  896 
120,  577 
136,  653 
127,  310 

72,  546 
59,  850 
35,  041 
21,  624 
29,  886 

28,  327 

29,  553 
27,  069 

26,  no 

54,  295 

1862  

122,  862 
117,  269 
92,  744 
59,  228 
42,  796 
36,  708 

80,  596 
51,018 
55,  498 
41,  208 
46,  589 
31,  498 

1853  

1863  

1854  

1864  

1855  

1865*  

1856  

1866  

1857  

1867  

1868  

1859  

83,  886 

62,  704 

I860  

1869  

1861 

* After  1865  the  stated  tonnage  is  either  partly  or  wholly  by  “new”  admeasurement,  which  produces 
some  apparent  diminution  that  is  not  real. 


It  appears  from  the  foregoing  statement  that  an  actual  and  consider- 
able decline  in  the  number  of  American  vessels  engaged  in  the  mackerel 
fisheries  occurred  during  the  first  six  years  of  the  reciprocity  treaty,  and- 
that,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  year  1862,  the  business  never  em 
ployed  so  much  tonnage  throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  treaty  as 
it  had  employed  in  the  two  years  before  the  treaty  was  negotiated, 
while  the  tonnage  previously  emifioyed  in  the  cod  fisheries  was  barely 
kept  engaged  until  1863,  and  after  that  likewise  declined. 

These  facts  are  eertainly  very  far  from  sustaining  the  prevalent  idea, 
particularly  prevalent  and  much  cherished  in  Canada,  that  the  conces- 
sions added  to  our  fishing  rights  on  the  British  North  American  coasts  by 
the  reciprocity  treaty  greatly  promoted  the  New  England  fishing  inter- 
ests, and  were  of  such  weighty  value  as  to  counterbalance  the  uneven 
sharing  of  the  commercial  privileges  negotiated  in  the  same  contract. 
The  importance  with  reference  to  these  fisheries  that  came  to  be  attached 
to  the  treaty  of  1851,  undoubtedly  grew  out  of  the  welcome  exi)erience 
of  relief  from  unfriendly  laws  and  harassing  officials  which  the  Ameri- 
can fishermen  enjoyed  under  it,  and  the  welcome  quietus  that  it  gave  to 
quarrels  and  questions  which  were  constantly  giving  rise  to  dangerous 


TRADE  WITH  liRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  25 


national  controversies.  Now  that  the  treaty  has  ceased  to  exist,  it  is 
the  recurrence  of  those  same  annoyances,  and  their  consequence  of  ill 
blood,  far  more  than  the  loss  of  the  ^Mnshore  fisheries,”  or  the  disi)uted 
definition  of  the  ^‘inshore  line,”  that  gives  seriousness  and  importance 
to  the  fisheries  question.  That  they  have  been  revived  in  the  most 
troublesome  forms  that  can  be  given  to  them — as  they  were  made 
troublesome  to  the  fullest  extreme  before  the  treaty  of  reciprocity  was 
negotiated — for  the  politic  purpose  of  heightening  the  importance  to  this 
country  of  some  compromise  that  will  end  them,  there  is  little  room  for 
questioning.  Nor  does  it  a})i)ear  very  doubtful  that  this  policy  origi- 
nates at  the  same  source  from  whence  proceeded  the  shrewd  dixfiomacy 
by  which,  in  the  treaty  of  1854,  the  maritime  x)rovinces  were  made  to 
furnish  the  consideration  for  x)rivileges  in  trade  from  which  the  Cana- 
dian provinces  drew  the  lion’s  share  of  profit. 

As  between  the  United  States  and  tlie  maritime  provinces,  which  are 
chiefly  the  x^arties  in  interest,  the  fisheries  question  could  x)i‘obably  be 
settled  very  easily.  Those  x>Eovinces  would  gladly  exchange  the  free- 
dom of  their  fishing  grounds,  and  eveiy  desired  landing  and  harbor 
X^rivilege,  for  free  access  to  American  markets  with  their  fish,  their  oil, 
their  coal,  their  gypsum,  their  lumber,  their  grindstones,  and  other  x>ro- 
ducts,  and  the  best  side  of  the  bargain,  so  far  as  actual  dollars  and 
cents’  worth  is  concerned,  would  be  theirs  at  that.  Indeed,  so  apx:>arent 
to  the  xieoxde  of  the  maritime  pi'ovinces  are  the  advantages  of  such  an 
adjustment  of  things,  that  the  sentiment  in  I'avor  of  securing  it  by  actual 
annexation  of  themselves  and  their  fisheries  to  the  United  States  has 
strength  enough  to  be  boldly  outsx^oken,  and  to  sux)X>ort  at  least  two 
Xtrominent  organs  of  its  x>ublic  exx)ression  in  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia. 
Had  an  effort  been  made,  at  the  termination  of  the  inequitable  treaty  of 
reciprocity,  to  negotiate  a settlement  of  the  fisheries  question  on  the 
basis  of  free  trade  with  the  x>r*ovinces  to  whom  the  chiefiy  valuable  fish- 
eries belong — then  sex)arate  as  the  since  confederated  xnovinces  were — 
the  situation  of  affairs  in  British  North  America  might  now  have  been 
considerably  different. 

IS  BEOIPBOCAL  FBEE  TEADE  PEACTICABLE  ? 

It  is  made  xd^iin  enough  by  the  showing  of  the  facts  i)resented  in  this 
report  that  abundant  reasons  exist  for  a strong  desire  on  our  x)art,  as 
well  as  oil  theirs,  to  bring  about  an  adjustment  of  our  commercial  re- 
lations with  all  the  British  colonial  states  that  are  in  neighborhood  to 
us,  and  esxiecially  with  the  Canadian  provinces,  nxion  a more  liberal  and 
more  natural  footing.  But  it  is  made  eipially  ifiain  that  the  United 
States  can  never,  in  jmstice  to  themselves,  effect  that  adjustment  iixion 
anything  like  the  bases  of  the  old  treaty  of  reciprocity.  We  want  a 
more  free  and  a more  extended  intercourse  in  trade  with  the  four  mil- 
lions of  ])eox)le  whose  territory,  in  so  many  respects,  is  the  geograjihical 
comxilement  of  our  own ; but  we  want  that  freedom  of  intercourse  to  take 


26  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


a range  considerably  beyond  the  raw  productions  in  whicli  the  two  coun- 
tries are  mere  competitors  of  each  other,  and  with  reference  to  which 
our  markets  are  necessarily  of  far  greater  value  to  the  provinces  than 
theirs  to  ns.  We  want,  not  merely  to  exchange  breadstiiffs,  and  pro- 
visions, and  coal,  and  hides  and  tallow  with  them,  but  to  sell  them  our 
cottons,  our  boots  and  shoes,  our  machinery,  and  our  manufactures  gen- 
erally, in  trade  for  their  lumber,  their  live  stocJv,  their  ashes,  their  plas- 
ter, their  furs,  their  minerals,  and  the  general  products  of  their  farms. 
We  want,  in  fact,  such  an  adjustment  of  the  trade  that  the  provinces 
shall  not  sell  what  they  have  to  sell  in  the  United  States  and  buy  what 
they  have  to  buy  in  Great  Britain. 

Is  the  arrangement  of  a reciprocal  free  trade  extended  to  that  range 
of  commodities  practicable Apparently  it  is  not,  under  jmesent  con- 
ditions. If  the  free  admission  of  American  commodities  is  suggested 
in  the  provinces,  there  arises  at  once  the  objection  that  their  relations 
with  Great  Britain  forbid  it;  that  they  cannot  discriminate  against  that 
country  in  favor  of  this,  and  that  their  revenue  necessities  will  not  per- 
mit the  removing  of  duties  from  the  products  of  both.  l!lor  could  we 
on  this  side  afford  the  introduction  of  a state  of  free  trade  between  our 
territory  and  the  provinces,  with  the  circumstances  of  the  two  countries 
remaining  as  they  are;  with  high  prices  and  high  wages  prevailing  upon 
one  side  of  tli^.  line,  and  low  wages  and  low  prices  prevailing  upon  the 
other;  with  the  industries  of  the  two  people  toned,  if  we  may  so  express 
it,  in  widely  different  keys.  To  obliterate  the  boundary  line,  commer- 
cially speaking,  while  these  contrasts  of  circumstance  and  the  causes 
behind  them  existed  to  still  define  it  in  every  industrial  respect,  would 
simply  invite  the  removal  of  a good  part  of  our  manufacturing  establish- 
ments across  the  frontier,  to  enjoy  the  cheap  scale  in  making  and  the 
dear  scale  in  selling  their  products.  Of  course,  time  would  finally  level 
all  the  differences  existing  at  first,  but  the  process  would  assuredly  be 
an  expensive  one  to  the  United  States. 

A ZOLLVEKEIK 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  an  intimate  freedom  of  commerce  between 
this  country  and  its  northern  neighbors,  which  is  so  desirable  for  both 
parties,  cannot  be  contemplated  except  in  connection  with  a material 
change  in  the  conditions  of  theforeign  relationship  that  the  provinces  sus- 
tain toward  us.  It  involves,  of  necessity,  an  entire  identification  of  the 
material  interests  of  the  two  countries,  by  their  common  association,  in 
some  form  or  other.  If  the  provinces  do  not  choose  to  become  one  with 
us  politically,  they  must  at  least  become  one  with  us  commercially, 
before  the  barriers  are  thrown  down  which  shut  them  out  from  an  equal 
participation  with  us  in  the  energetic  working  of  the  mixed  activities 
of  the  new  world,  and  which  deprive  us,  in  a great  jneasure,  of  the 
reenforcement  that  they  are  capable  of  bringing  to  those  activities. 
The  alternative  of  annexation  is  the  zollverein,  or  a customs  union,  after 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  27 


the  plan  of  that  under  wliich  the  German  states  secured  free  trade 
among  themselves  and  identity  of  interest  in  their  commerce  with  the 
outside  world. 

A majority  of  the  people  of  the  British  provinces  may  not  yet  be  pre- 
pared in  feeling  (though  many  of  them  are)  for  an  arrangement  which 
probablj^  involves  the  disjointing  of  their  ])olitical  attachment  to  Great 
Britain,  and  the  assumption  for  themselves  of  a state  of  political  inde- 
pendence; but  the  time  cannot  be  very  distant  when  the  persuasion 
of  their  interests  will  overpower  the  hardly  explainable  sentiment  by 
which  it  is  opposed.  Perpetually  made  conscious,  of  late  years,  that 
the  parental  nation  to  which  they  have  loyally  clung  is  more  than  ready 
to  dismiss  them  to  an  independent  career,  with  a hearty  God-speed,  and 
that  they  are  far  more  endangered  than  protected  by  their  anomalous 
connection  with  Great  Britain,  their  feeling  with  reference  to  that  con- 
nection has  confessedly  undergone  a great  change.  At  the  i^resent 
time  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces  appear  to  be  in  a doubtful,  waver- 
ing, transition  state  of  opinion  and  sentiment,  witli  regard  to  their  future 
policy  as  ai^eople;  much  affected,  on  the  one  hand,  b}"  dissatisfaction 
with  their  relations  to  England,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a mistaken 
belief  that  it  is  the  ambitions  policy  and  fixed  purpose  of  their  Ameri- 
can neighbors  to  coerce  them  into  a surrender  of  themselves  and  their 
territory  to  the  United  States.  That  it  is  alike  against  the  political 
convictions  and  against  the  manifest  interest  of  this  nation  to  covet  the 
forcible  absorption  into  its  body-politic  of  any  unwilling,  alien,  discon- 
tented commnnity  of  people,  so  large  as  that  of  the  British  i)rovinces, 
and  that  their  accession  to  it  is  only  desirable,  and  only  desired,  if  the}^ 
come  by  free  choosing  of  their  own,  is  a fact  wliich  they  will  probably 
discern  when  their  reflections  have  become  more  deliberate. 

There  does  exist  a feeling  in  the  United  States  with  reference  to 
them  which  it  ought  not  to  be  difficult  for  the  people  of  the  provinces 
to  understand.  It  is  the  unwillingness  of  a reasonable  jealousy,  and  of 
a just,  prudential  selfishness,  to  extend  the  material  benefits  of  member- 
ship in  the  American  Union,  without  its  responsibilities  and  reciprocal 
obligations,  to  communities  with  which  the  certain  relations  of  an  inde- 
pendent- friendship  cannot  be  cultivated  or  maintained;  which  are  con- 
trolled by  a distant  foreign  jiower,  and  which  are  at  all  times  liable  to 
be  placed  in  an  attitude  of  unfriendliness  or  hostility  to  this  country  by 
causes  outside  of  themselves,  or  through  events  in  connection  with  whicdi 
they  have  nothing  on  their  own  part  to  do.  Between  two  equally 
independent  and  responsible  nationalities,  homogeneous  in  blood  and 
character,  and  with  every  interest  in  common,  situated  as  tlie  United 
States  and  their  northern  neighbors  are  toward  each  other,  it  would  be 
as  easy  to  settle  the  relations  of  intimate  fellowshii)  ui)on  an  enduring 
basis,  as  it  is  made  difficult  to  do  so  in  the  case  of  tliese  provinces,  by 
reasons  of  their  dependent  status. 

The  circumstances  which  make  the  common  boundary  of  tlie  two 


28  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROAHNCES. 


countries  an  actual  barrier  instead  of  an  imaginary  line,  are  under  tlieir 
control,  not  onrs.  It  is  for  them  to  determine  which  affects  them  most 
importantly,  their  political  association  with  Great  Britain,  or  their  com- 
mercial and  industrial  association  in  interest  with  the  United  States, 
and  which  shall  be  yielded  to  the  other,  since  the  two  are  unquestionably 
in  contlict.  There  is  no  apparent  evasion  of  the  choice  that  they  must 
make. 

THE  TRANSIT  TRADE. 

Ill  every  commercial  respect  the  dependence  of  the  provinces  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada — especially  of  the  old  Canadian  provinces — upon 
the  United  States,  is  almost  absolute.  To  say  so  is  not  to  make  an  arro- 
gant boast,  but  to  state  a simple  fact.  Restricted  as  the  intercourse 
between  the  Canadas  and  this  country  unhappily  is  now,  they  derive 
from  it  almost  Avholly  the  life  which  animates  their  industry  and  their 
enterprise.  The  railroad  system,  which  gives  them  a circulation  of  en- 
ergies, and  by  which  their  resources  are  being  developed,  is  the  offspring 
of  the  East  and  West  traffic  of  the  United  States.  Its  trunk  lines  are 
supported,  and  were  made  possible  undertakings,  by  the  carrying  busi- 
ness that  they  command  from  point  to  point  of  the  American  frontier, 
across  intervening  Canadian  territory.  American  commerce  instigated 
the  building  of  their  Welland  and  St.  Lawrence  Canals,  and  furnishes 
the  compensation  for  the  cost  of  both.  American  commerce  is  the  insti- 
gator to,  and  the  guarantor  for,  every  similar  enterprise  that  is  now  con- 
templated in  the  provinces. 

These  are  not  exaggerated  representations.  They  are  borne  out  by 
the  returns  of  the  traffic  of  the  chief  Canadian  railways  and  canals. 

The  following  is  a statement,  in  tons,  of  the  property  transported 
through  the  Welland  Canal  in  18G9,  showing  the  ])roportions  of  Ameri- 
can and  Canadian  commerce  employing  the  canal : 


Up. 

Down. 

Total. 

From  American  to  American  ports tons.. 

From  American  to  Canadian  ports tons.. 

From  Canadian  to  American  ports tons.. 

From  Canadian  to  Canadian  ports tons.. 

2T7,  065 
5,  845 
78.  480 
16,  666 

411,  635 
210,  608 
56,  455 
178,  751 

688,  700 
21.5,  851 
134,  935 
195,  417 

The  following  is  a statement  of  the  freight  traffic  of  the  Great  West- 
ern Railway  of  Canada,  for  the  year  ending  July  31,  1870: 


Cattle. 

Sheep. 

Hogs. 

Grain. 

Other 

freight. 

Receipts. 

Head. 

Head. 

Head. 

Bushels. 

Tons. 

S,  s.  d. 

Foreij^n  traffic,  eastward.. 
Foreign  traffic,  westward  . 

33,  329 

129,  784 

99,  061 

2,597,042  j 

213,  739 
136,  825 

203,499  11  6 
99,  602  9 10 

Total  forei<^n  traffic.-.. 

33,329 

129,  784 

99,061 

2,597,042 

350,  504 

303,  162  1 4 

Local  traffic,  (both  ways) . . 

37, 195 

77,  648 

26,  593 

2,330,555 

323,  585 

194,191  14  2 

I have  been  unable  to  procure  a statement  of  the  traffic  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  of  Canada,  the  management  of  \yhich  appears  to  pursue  a 
policy  of  concealment  with  regard  to  its  business ; but  very  much  the 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  29 


same  state  of  facts  atouIcI  iiiuloubtedly  be  sliowii  on  that  road  as  on  the 
Great  Westeri].  The  extent  to  Avliich  tlie  Grand  Trunk  Eailway  shares 
in  the  tlonf  and  grain  trade  of  the  United  States,  appears  in  the  follow- 
ing statement  of  the  quantities  of  those  articles  which  were  shipped 
upon  it  from  its  two  western  frontier  termini,  Sarnia  and  Goderich,  in 
the  year  18G9  : 


Flour. 

Wheat. 

Corn. 

Other  grain. 

From  TTuited  States  to  United  States,  in  transit 

[Ftoiii  Stnt^s 

Barrels. 
431,830 
90,  112 

Bushels. 
225,  900 

Bushels. 

1,  G92, 133 
670,  230 

Bushels. 
183,  643 
48,  831 

The  foregoing  figures  supply  their  oaaui  commentary  and  fully  sustain 
the  remark  with  which  they  were  introduced,  that  the  main  railways 
and  canals  of  Canada  owe  their  existence  and  their  support  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States,  in  the  transportation  of  which  they  share. 

On  the  other  hand,  a large  portion  of  the  commerce  between  the  old 
Canadian  provinces  (Ontario  and  Quebec)  and  foreign  countries,  other 
than  our  own,  is  carried  on  through  the  United  States.  This  is  made 
necessary  by  the  Avinter  closing  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  by  the  fact  that 
no  railroad  connection  between  the  Canadian  interior  and  the  seaports 
of  the  maritime  proAunces  exists,  and  that  one  can  be  formed  only  by 
taking  so  Avide,  costly,  and  inconvenient  a circuit  that  its  commercial 
usefulness  Avhen  realized  AAill  be  A^ery  slight.  According  to  the  “Trade 
and  XaAugation  ” tables  published  by  the  goAwnment  of  the  Dominion, 
the  foreign  goods  passing  through  the  United  States  under  bond  to  the 
Canadiau  importer,  in  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  18G0,  amounted  in 
Amine  to  $G,825,1G5.  This  is  exclushm  of  foreign  goods  purchased  in 
the  United  States  market,  in  bond,  to  the  Audue  of  $1,701,9G5. 

According  to  the  returns  compiled  in  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  at 
Washington,  the  foreign  commodities  carried  through  the  United  States 
to  Canada  in  the  fiscal ‘year  ended  June  30, 18G9,  amounted  to  the  Amine 
of  $14,843, G20,  (more  than  double  the  quantity  appearing  in  the  Canadian 
statistics,)  and  the  Canadian  commodities  shipped  through  the  United 
States  to  countries  abroad  aggregated  $5,794,197.  In  the  fiscal  year 
ended  June  30,  1870,  the  goods  shipped  through  the  United  States  to 
Canada  Avere  of  the  A alue  of  $1G,519,G37,  and  from  Canada,  $G,932,G93. 
The  greater  part  of  this  in  transitu  trade  is  to  and  from  Portland,  Maine, 
OA'er  the  Grand  Trunk  Baihvay,  as  appears  in  the  folloAving  statement 
of  it  for  1870,  made  by  districts: 


Disti'icts. 

lieceived  from 
Canada. 

Shipped  to 
Canada. 

Portland 

$3,  273,  773 
3,  A55,  740 
119,  r>72 
.AO,  017 
12,  093 
7,  701 

2,  409 
2,  388 

$10,  768,  800 
2,  502,  614 
111,270 
7,  975 
2,  861,  1.50 
7,  701 

Vermont 

Detroit 

I’ort  Huron 

New  York 

Passamaijuoddy,  Alaine 

Alilwaukee 

Do.ston 

260,  127 

Total 

6,  932,  693 

16,  519,  637 

30  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


No  one  will  question  tliat  we  find  convenienee  and  advantage  in  the 
use  of  Canadian  channels  for  the  passage  of  our  coininerce  between  the 
Eastern  and  Western  States,  nor  that  we  find  profit  in  acting  as  the 
carriers  of  so  large  a part  of  the  connnerce  of  Canada  with  the  outside 
AYorld.  Both  these  arrangements  of  trade  are  of  important  value  to  this 
country,  and  its  interests  would  suffer  materially  from  any  suspension 
of  either;  but  the  difference  in  the  situation  of  the  two  countries  with 
reference  to  them  is  very  marked.  To  the  Canadian  provinces  their 
importance  is  nothing  less  than  vital,  since,  on  the  one  hand,  the  very 
sustenance  of  the  arterial  system  of  the  Canadas  is  derived  from  the 
American  commerce  which  circulates  through  it ; while,  on  the  other 
hand,  their  own  commerce  with  the  world  abroad  can  only  be  conducted 
at  exceeding  disadvantage,  if  at  all,  for  five  months  of  the  year,  other- 
wise than  across  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  privilege 
of  the  customs  regulations  of  the  American  Government.  The  contem- 
plation of  such  a state  of  facts  must  make  it  a very  serious  question  to 
the  Canadian  people  whether  they  can  afford  to  let  their  relations  with 
the  United  States  remain  in  a precarious  state,  subject  to  disturbance 
by  causes  that  are  totally  foreign  to  themselves. 

CANADIAN  AND  AMERICAN  TARIFF  POLICIES. 

The  proposed  arrangement  of  a commercial  union,  or  zollverein,  with 
no  tariff'  between  the  States  and  the  inde])endent  provinces  that  become 
parties  to  it,  and  a common  tariff  for  all  outside  trade — dividing  the 
common  revenue  collected  from  customs  duties  upon  equitable  terms — is 
an  arrangement  which  would  place  the  provinces  in  the  utmost  security 
of  interested  relationship  with  this  country,  and  which,  beyond  all  ques- 
tion, would  yield  great  advantage  and  profit  to  both  people.  There  are 
obstacles  and  apparent  objections,  to  be  sure,  in  the  way  of  such  an 
arrangement,  but  they  are  less  serious  in  the  reality  than  in  the  appear- 
ance. The  objection  raised,  on  the  other  side,  upon  the  score  of  the  wide 
diff'erence  that  has  existed  of  late  years  between  the  tariff'  policy  of  the 
United  States  and  the  tariff' policy  of  the  Dominion,  is  an  objection  Avhich 
a few  years  more  seem  likely  to  remove,  in  any  event.  While  the  tend- 
ency in  this  country  is  toward  a moderation  of  the  extreme  protection 
duties  that  were  caused  by  the  necessities  of  the  war,  the  tendency  in 
Canada,  with  reference  to  duties,  is  a steadily  advancing  one.  Opinions 
favorable  to  a pronounced  policy  of  protection  are  manifestly  gaining 
very  decided  strength  in  the  Dominion,  and  some,  at  least,  of  the 
prominent  public  men  now  in  office,  including  the  premier  of  one  of  the 
provinces,  are  among  their  advocates.  Within  the  last  year,  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  reduced  and  abolished  duties  in  the  American 
tariff',  estimated  at  the  sum  of  $26,000,000  per  annum,  while  the  parlia- 
ment of  the  Dominion,  at  its  corresponding  session,  made  considerable 
additions  to  the  Canadian  tariff'.  Within  the  past  twelve  years  the 
average  rate  of  the  Canadian  tariff'  has  at  least  doubled.  In  the  last 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  31 


fiscal  year,  the  duties  collected  in  the  Dominion  amounted  to  21  per  cent, 
on  the  dutiable  commodities  imported.  In  the  same  5^ear,  it  is  true,  the 
duties  collected  in  the  United  States  averaged  4G  per  cent,  on  the  duti- 
able commodities  imported,  but  the  current  fiscal  year  will  probably 
show  a falling  of  the  latter  rate  to  less  than  40  per  cent,  and  an  advance 
in  the  former  rate  to  perhaps  23  or  24  ])er  cent.  The  wide  difference  by 
which  the  two  countries  have  been  apart  in  their  tariff’  policy  is  certainly 
destined  to  disappear  in  no  very  long  time,  whatever  their  relations  to 
each  other  may  be. 

CANADA  AS  A “CHEAP  COUNTPY.” 

It  was  remarked  not  long  since,’ by  a prominent  Canadian  gentleman, 
that  the  policy  of  the  Dominion  was-  to  make  a cheap  country.  That 
policy  has  undoubtedly  been  successful  in  realizing  its  object;  but 
whether  “ cheapness,”  as  an  ultimate  end,  is  a wisely-chosen  object  of 
public  policy  may  be  questioned. 

WAGES  AND  THE  COST  OF  LIVING. 

To  ascertain  how  labor  stands  affected  by  the  cheapness  that  prevails 
among  our  northern  neighbors,  I have  procured  a representative  state- 
inent  of  wages  and  of  the  prices  of  articles  that  enter  most  into  the 
cost  of  living,  taken  at  several  points  in  Ontario,  in  the  two  chief  towns 
of  Yew  Brunswick,  and  in  the  city  of  Quebec.  The  mean  average  be- 
tween the  four  points  represented  in  Ontario  is,  I think,  a fair  one  for 
that  province,  which  is  by  far  the  most  active  and  prosperous  section  of 
the  Dominion;  that  between  the  two  towns  reported  from  in  New 
Brunswick  is,  no  doubt,  something  above  the  general  average  of  wages, 
and,  possibly,  of  prices,  in  the  province.  How  nearly  the  summer  aver- 
age of  wages  in  the  city  of  Quebec  represents  the  same  in  the  province 
of  Quebec  I am  not  now  able  to  say,  though  it  is  certainly  indicative  of 
the  prevailing  state  of  industry. 

These  figures  are  placed,  below,  in  comparison  with  similar  figures 
representing  the  mean  average  of  wages  and  prices  in  the  States  of 
New  York  and  Maine,  the  latter  of  which  are  derived  from  the  elaborate 
tables  upon  the  subject  compiled  and  published  within  the  past  year  by 
the  Bureau  of  Statistics  at  Washington.  The  New  York  and  Maine 
report  is  for  the  year  I8G9,  while  the  Canadian  statement  presents  the 
average  prices  of  labor  and  of  commodities  that  i)revailed  during  the 
summer  of  1870;  but,  so  far  as  the  diff’erence  in  time  affects  the  accuracy 
of  the  comparison,  it  is  rather  to  the  advantage  ot  the  Canadian  side, 
since  prices  in  the  United  States  have  declined  to  some  extent  during 
the  year  past. 


Wages  in  Ontario,  in  New  Brunswicic,  and  in  the  cilij  of  Qnelec,  during  the  summer  of  1870,  compared  with  wages  in  New  Yorlc  and  in  Maine,  during  the 

year  1869. 


32 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Ratios. 

•q,IOi  AVOX  iP 
S3.§nAV  oj  ooq 
-on?)jo  Aqi.-)  ui 
soSoAv  JO  oijnji 

c-i  cd  ci  ci  « iii  ci  t-!  ci  ci  i 

BBBBBBBBBS  | 

•aiiib’K  ni 

saSb’AV  oj  q.ot.w 
-siin.ia  Av.^x  >11 
saSoAs.  JO  oijuji 

Ito  1.94 

1 to  1.  79 

1 to  1.  (19 

1 to  1.  70 

1 to  1.75 

1 to  1.  9S 

1 to  1.81 

1 to  1.  75 

1 to  1.  71 

•q.iox 
AV9X  ni  saS'uAV 
oj  OLiiqiif)  ni 
saSoAv  JO  oi:|i?y^ 

1 to  1.  57 

1 to  1.  47 

Ito  1.64 

1 to  1.  81 

1 to  1.  64 

1 to  1.  81 

1 to  1.  88 

1 to  1.32 

1 to  1.  36 

1 to  1.  90 

1 to  1.  77 

United  States. 

'6981  ‘oniop: 
ni  9.OU.10AY 

CO  S 0 ?o  3 CO  0 3 J 

^ 07  OJ  CO  C^!  T-i  ‘ 

•6981 
‘q.ioi  Avax 
ni  o.oB.TaAY 

^eC(?Jci:^(jT<ncT»THo 

•0L8I  ‘oaqoiij^  jo  A‘;to 

Province  of  New 
Brnnswick. 

•0i8T 

‘jloiAisnu.itj 

•X  in  oSbMOAY 

•uojJiOT.19p9.Tx 

•sjiqop'js 

:§ 

d 

1 

5 

C 

I 

1 

i •n’.8T  ‘ounj 
-TTQ  III  9.oL’.[9AY 

C»  ,-1  tH  cn  rH  r-l  cn  « rH  10 

•TTiuqjuqo 

l2i^2tgS®2^g§§ 

^GJrHrSCJrHTHrHjOTHlO 

•paojjuBJo: 

ggl[2g^,^^ggggg 

r-trHClr-HrHCliqrHO 

•aojiTUTUH 

: :§§§ 
^cji-Hr-tGjTH  j 

•A’jjo  u.«.ujjo 

1 

ig§i2Sg  :g§§§ 

ffl  rH  CN  r-l  jcNCTrHO 

Occup.atious. 

Black.sniitli daily. 

Bricklavcrs  or  nia.sons daily. 

Carpenters daily. 

Painters daily. 

Pla.sterers daily. 

Shoemakers daily. 

Tailors daily. 

'Wheelwrio-hts daily. 

Ordinaiy  farm  laborers,  .per  moTith,  with  board. 
Other  common  laborers,  .per  day,  without  board. 
Pennile  servants per  month,  with  board. 

g ^ 

rA  rA  zi 

S B B 


{1 

2 'S  2 

I I 

'S  « ^ 

I ^ g 
I g 2 

III 

§-.3 


.3  I 

I « 


li 


I 

.3  0^ 

rii 

il§ 

III 

o t^;  o 

.3  .2  .3 

III 


iii 

s ^ ^ 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  33 

If  we  reduce  tlie  wages  paid  in  tlie  United  States  to  their  equivalent  in 
the  currency  with  which  (Canadian  workmen  were  paid,  by  calculation  of 
the  current  premium  on  gold  in  1869,  (which  averaged  about  32  per  cent.,) 
we  shall  find  that  wages  in  New  York  average  25  per  cent,  more  in  their 
gold  value  than  wages  in  Ontario,  and  80  per  cent,  more  than  in  the 
city  of  Quebec,  and  that  the  gold  value  of  wages  in  Maine  is  35  per  cent, 
greater  than  in  New  Brunswick. 

But  the  fairer  comparison  of  the  earnings  of  labor  in  the  two  coun- 
tries is  to  ascertain  the  purchasing  value  of  each,  or  their  ratio  in  each 
country  to  the  cost  of  living.  This  we  do  in  the  table  subjoined,  which 
exhibits  the  prices  of  the  principal  articles  of  common  consumption, 
and  the  ordinary  rates  of  board  and  house  rent,  in  the  same  localities 
that  are  cited  in  the  foregoing  table,  and  for  the  same  periods  of  time  : 

3 


Prices  in  Ontario,  in  New  Brunswick,  and  in  the  city  of  Quebec,  during  the  summer  of  1870,  compared  with  prices  in  New  York  and  in  Maine  during 

the  year  1869. 


34  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Eatios. 

•q-ioi 
Avajq  m sooinl  o^ 
oaqoii^  fo’  ififp 

III  saoijci  JO  oijey; 

1 to  1.31 

1 to  0.  81 

1 to  1.  90 

1 to  1.  38 

1 to  1.  81 

1 to  1.  40 

1 to  1.  53 

1 to  1.  GO 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  60 

1 to  1.  70 

1 to  1.  63 

1 to  1.  46 

1 to  1.  37 

1 to  1.  41 

1 to  1.  36 

1 to  1.  20 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  2. 10 

1 to  1.  33 

1 to  3.  00 

1 to  2.  60 

1 to  1.  33 

1 to  1.  41 

1 to  1.  72 

1 to  1.  45 

1 to  1. 10 

1 to  1.  50 

•ouTcj^  UT  saotjtl 
o;  ^[OIAVSUU.IJJ 

lit  sooud  JO  oijca; 

1 to  1.  43 

1 to  0.  49 

1 to  1.  27 

1 to  0.  75 

1 to  2.  09 

1 to  1.  30 

1 tn  2.  00 

1 to  1.  69 

1 to  1.  63 

1 to  1.  37 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  64 

1 to  1.  69 

1 to  1.  51 

1 to  1.  45 

1 to  1.  38 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  78 

1 to  1.  79 

1 to  1. 10 

1 to  1.20 

1 to  2. 16 

1 to  1.  08 

1 to  1.  33 

1 to  2.  00 

1 to  1.  04 

1 to  1.  23 

1 to  1.  58 

•q.TOj^  Avajq  ni 
saoi.id  o|  oppno 
in  saoijd  jo  otp’^ 

1 to  1.  26 

1 to  0.  87 

1 to  2.  11 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  2.  40 

1 to  1.  87 

1 to  2. 16 

1 to  2.  46 

1 to  2. 18 

1 to  2.  21 

1 to  1.  84 

1 to  2.  00 

1 to  1.  65 

1 to  1.  47 

1 to  1.  45 

1 to  1.  41 

1 to  1.  60 

1 to  1.  28 

1 to  1.  58 

1 to  2.  20 

1 to  1.  43 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  2.  60 

1 to  1.  78 

1 to  1.  72 

1 to  1.  42 

1 to  1. 14 

1 to  1. 10 

1 to  1.  58 

United  States. 

•6931 

‘onrej\[  uioJjU.ioAY 

$9  15 

2 38 

14 

06 

23 

13 

10 

11 

09 

11 

12 

16 

22 

22 

21 

18 

24 

08 

13 

43 

21 

54 

13 

07 

28 

1 00 

27 

34 

15 

•698T  ‘q-toi 

Aio^q  III  oSu.iOAY 

fc”  r-l 

•0L81  ‘oaqenf)  Jo 

$6  00 

4 50 

10 

06i 

11 

10 

oei 

10 

08 

10 

10 

11 

13 

16 

17 

14 

20 

06 

10 

20 

15 

20 

05 

06 

22 

65 

20 

30 

10 

Province  of  New 
Brunswick. 

’OlBt  ‘qoiAisiin.ia; 
Aiox;  in  9.Sej3AY 

K - S g § § S ^ ? 3 2 S S 

51288855  ggS'f 

•ao|5[OTj:apoj^ 

sgsgsssggsg23^2i3::sg 

5;82g£g5  8££2 

•spqop  -IS 

SSgggg  8gg8 

Province  of  Ontario. 

•0181  ‘OTJ 

-'cjuo  ni  oScjOAY 

S § g gS  g fg  £ g § 52  2 2 2 £ f 2 2 ? g 2 f g f 

•uiuqj'Bqo 

:g§g8gggg§§32S222£g22ggg2  gggS 

:E 

•p.iojjuma 

ggSg  :g£  :gggg22222£gg2gggg 

E^  : : 

•nojiitai?H 

8 isgggg  :g£sS  :2222£5828gggJ  8882 

E i : : 

-.fjIQ  BAiOJJO 

I'8£g2£g£8£g£g2222  : 
E"^  : 

22gSg2  :£££ 

Articles. 

rnovisioxs. 

Flour,  Avlieat,  superfine - per  barrel.. 

('orii  uH-al do 

Beef,  fresh,  roastini*:  pieces per  pound.. 

soup  pieces do 

rump  steaks do 

domed  beef do 

A'eal,  fore-quarters do 

bind-(inarters do 

iMutton,  fore-quarters do 

less do 

chops do 

Pork,  fresh  do 

corned  and  salted do 

Bacon do 

Hams,  smoked do 

Slu)ulders do 

Lard do 

Codfish,  dry do 

Butter do 

Cheese do 

Potatoes ])er  bushel. . 

Eiee per  pound. . 

IMilk per  <iuart. . 

Eg<>s per  dozen.. 

GROCEKIES. 

Tea per  pound.. 

Coffee,  Eio,  green do 

roasted do 

Sugar,  good  brown do 

TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  35 


1 to  1.  45 
1 to  1.  30 
1 to  1.  57 
1 to  1.  71 
1 to  1. 18 

1 to  0.  95 
1 to  1.  48 
1 to  1.  37 

1 to  1. 15 

1 to  1.  20 

1 to  1. 11 

1 to  0.  52 

1 to  0.  56 

1 to  0.  90 

1 to  1.  31 

1 to  1. 10 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  36 

1 to  1.  36 

1 to  1.  02 

1 to  1.  33 

1 to  0.  94 

1 to  1.  95 

1 to  1.  37 

1 to  1.  26 

1 to  1.  09 

1 to  1. 17 

1 to  0.  87 

1 to  0.  57 

1 to  0.  42 

1 to  1. 14 

1 to  1. 14 

1 to  0.  85 

1 to  1.  27 

1 to  1. 19 

1 to  1.  52 

1 to  1.  03 

1 to  1.  45 

1 to  1.  55 

1 to  1.  52 

1 to  1.  71 

1 to  1. 18 

1 to  1. 14 

1 to  1.  48 

1 to  1.78 

1 to  1.  48 

1 to  1.  64 

1 to  1.  54 

1 to  0.  87 

1 to  0.  68 

1 to  1.  51 

1 to  1. 14 

1 to  0.  91 

1 to  1.00 

1 to  1.  30 

1 to  2.  04 

1 to  1.  72 

1 to  1.  50 

1 to  1.  55 

15 

17 

1 00 

12 

16 

11  20 

6 00 

3 15 

49 

17 

17 

16 

21 

25 

33 

14 

70 

4 83 

4 45 

6 45 

3 72 

2 70 

16 

17 

1 18 

12 

13 

8 10 

6 30 

4 12 

46 

18 

20 

21 

28 

28 

34 

11 

67 

4 40 

8 40 

11  20 

4 50 

3 50 

11 

m 

75 

07 

11 

8 50 

4 25 

3 00 

40 

15 

18 

40 

50 

31 

26 

i : : § 

^ 1 I TO 

kC  ^ 51 

: SS  i 

I CC  ^ CO 

th  o Cl  I I I < 

^ gg 

ro  CO 

11 

12 

95 

09 

16 

5 50 

5 25 

3 00 

40 

11 

18 

28 

50 

22 

28 

15 

55 

2 00 

3 00 

4 00 

He  H-  -1  Hn  ^ 

. Cl  CC  CO  fC 

11 

11 

75 

10 

12.t 

7 00 

2 50 

1 75 

30 

10 

12i 

25 

50 

16 

20 

m 

70 

4 00 

5 00 

8 00 

3 00 

2 00 

§g§  g-  H 

00  r:  ' 1 

g' 

4 00 

6 00 

3 00 
2 50 

I'sigi’  gi§  S 

r-l  1'  CO  fC 

5 00 

8 00 

3 00 

2 50 

1 CO  r:  r-t  j ( 

.2  g§  §g 

M Cl  CC  C) 

) 

t 

yellow,  “C.” do 

(’offeo,  ‘‘  B." <lo 

Sirup -■ per  p;allon. 

Soa)),  common l)er  pound. 

Starch do 

I'L'EL. 

Coal pe  ton. 

M’ood,  hard per  cord. 

soft do 

LIGHT. 

Oil,  coal per  gallon. 

DOMESTIC  DRV  GOODS. 

Shirtings,  brown,  4-4,  standard  quality per  yard 

bleached,  4-4,  standard  quality do 

Sheetings,  brown,  9-8,  standard  quality do 

bleached,  9-8,  standard  quality. . .do 

Cotton  flannel do 

Ticking,  good  qualitv,  wide , do 

Satinets  and  tweeds,  medium  quality do 

Lioots,  men  s neavy per  jiair. 

HOUSE-REXT. 

Four-room  tenements per  month. 

Six-room  tenements do 

HOARD. 

For  men per  week. 

i 

i 

§ 


I 

■* 

I 

s 

« 

1 

0 

1 
I 

p 

.a 

0 

<C 

"A 

.3 

1 

■a 

3 

0 

1 

a 

.3 

i 


•I 

g 


Mean  ratio  of  prices  in  iSTew  Brunswick  to  prices  in  Maine,  from  the  list  of  articles  named  above 1 to  1.42. 

Mean  ratio  of  prices  in  city  of  Quebec  to  prices  in  New  York,  from  the  list  of  articles  named  above 1 to  1.43. 


36  TKADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


According  to  tlie  mean  ratios  obtained  from  the  foregoing  tables,  the 
wages  of  the  average  workman  in  New  York  are  65  per  cent,  greater 
than  the  same  wages  in  Ontario,  while  the  cost  of  his  living  is  but  58 
per  cent,  greater  ; leaving  a clear  excess  of  7 per  cent,  in  his  favor. 

The  wages  of  the  average  workman  in  Maine  are  78  per  cent,  greater 
than  the  same  wages  in  New  Brunswick,  and  the  cost  of  his  living  is  but 
42  per  cent,  greater  5 leaving  a clear  excess  of  36  per  cent,  in  his  favor. 

Between  New  York  and  the  city  of  Quebec  the  difference  is  almost 
incredible : wages  138  per  cent,  higher  in  the  former,  and  the  cost  of 
living  but  43  per  cent,  higher,  leaving  95  i)er  cent,  clear  excess  of  earn- 
ings to  labor  in  New  York. 

It  may  be  doubted,  however,  whether  a just  ratio  of  prices  is  obtained 
by  calculating  the  mean  rate  between  prices  in  so  miscellaneous  a list. 
A more  accurate  calculation  may  be  made  by  another  method.  Taking 
on  each  side  equal  quantities  of  the  various  articles  quoted,  in  an  esti- 
mate of  the  probable  consumi)tion  of  an  ordinaiy  family,  I arrive  at 
the  following  results: 

That  which  cost  $100  in  gold  in  Ontario  cost  $162  in  currency  in  New 
York,  or  $122  72  in  gold;  while  for  every  $100  of  wages  that  the  aver- 
age workman  received  in  Ontario,  he  was  paid  $165  in  currency  in  New 
Y^ork,  or  $125  in  gold.  Excess  of  purchasing  value  in  New  York  wages 
oyer  Ontario  wages,  2.28  per  cent.,  gold  measurement. 

That  which  cost  $100  in  gold  in  New  Brunswick  cost  $141  in  currency 
in  Maine,  or  $106  82  in  gold;  while  for  every  $100  of  wages  that  the  aver- 
age workman  received  in  New  Brunswick,  he  received  $178  currency,  or 
$134  84  gold  in  Maine.  Excess  of  purchasing  value  in  Maine  wages 
over  New  Brunswick  wages,  28  per  cent.,  gold  measurement. 

That  which  cost  $100  in  the  city  of  Quebec,  cost  $152  currency  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  or  $115  15  in  gold ; while  for  every  $100  of  wages 
that  the  average  workman  received  in  Quebec,  he  was  paid  $238  curren- 
cy, or  $180  gold,  in  New  York.  Excess  of  purchasing  value  in  New 
York  wages  over  wages  in  the  city  of  Quebec,  64.85  per  cent.,  gold 
measurement. 

In  other  words,  by  the  same  labor  and  with  the  same  living,  the  av- 
erage workman  can  make  and  save  $2  28  (gold),  out  of  every  $100  of 
earnings,  more  in  New  York  than  in  Ontario ; $28  more  in  Maine  than 
in  New  Brunswick,  and  $64  85  more  in  New  Y^ork  than  in  the  city  of 
Quebec. 

It  is  certainly  plain  enough  that  labor  gains  nothing,  but  loses  very 
seriously,  from  the  state  of  cheapness  prevailing  in  the  Dominion. 

THE  SAVINGS  OF  INDUSTRIE 

The  state  of  a country  with  reference  to  the  accumulating  energy  of 
its  productive  industries,  and  the  general  prosperity  of  its  people,  is 
indicated  with  tolerable  certainty  now-a-days  by  its  savings  institutions. 
The  sa^  ings  on  deposit  throughout  the  Dominion  at  the  close  of  1869, 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  37 

in  tlie  post  office  savings  banks,  in  trustees^  savings  banks,  in  cliart- 
ered  banks,  and  in  the  hands  of  building  societies,  was  estimated  by  the 
compiler  of  the  Canadian  Year  Book^^  at  $9,168,150.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  same  year  the  deposits  in  the  savings  banks  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  drawn  from  the  earnings  of  bnt  a little  larger  population,  were 
returned  at  $169,808,678,  equivalent  to  about  $127,000,000  in  gold,  or 
fourteen  times  the  total  sum  of  savings  in  the  Dominion.  The  savings 
deposited  in  Massachusetts  at  the  same  period,  by  a people  numbering 
about  one-third  the  population  of  the  Dominion,  were  $95,000,000,  equiva- 
lent to  about  $71,000,000  in  gold  j and  the  latest  published  returns  from 
the  savings  banks  in  all  the  New  England  States  show  as  follows : 


Massachusetts $112, 119,  016 

Conuecticut 47,  904,  834 

Rhode  Island 27,  067,  072 

Maine 10,  490,  368 

New  Hampshire 18,  759,  461 

Vermont 2,037,934 


Total  New  England 218,  378,  685 


ACCUMULATED  WEALTH. 

Statistics  from  which  to  calculate  the  actual  wealth  of  the  provinces 
are  not  at  present  attainable.  Even  the  assessed  valuation  of  real  and 
personal  property  for  xiurposes  of  taxation  I have  been  able  to  lirocnre 
only  for  Ontario,  and  there  no  later  than  1867.  The  comparison  of 
property,  as  assessed  in  Canada  and  the  United  States,  must  be  a tol- 
erably just  one,  since  the  under- valuation  cannot  be  far  from  alike  in 
both  cases.  Ontario  is  by  far  the  wealthiest  of  all  the  provinces,  both 
actually"  and  proportionately,  and  its  official  statement  of  the  assessed 
value  of  real  and  personal  property  for  three  years  is  as  follows : 


Years. 

Assessed  value 
of  real  estate. 

Assessed  value 
of  personal 
propert3^ 

Total. 

186.5 

$232,  782,  016 
238,  201,  6.57 
212,  888.  435 

$25,  357,  829 
26,  295,  087 
23,  963,  077 

$258, 139,  845 
264,  496,  744 
236,  851,  512 

1866  

1867* 

* The  fact  that  the  assessed  values  of  i)roperty  were  lowered  to  the  extent  of  $28,000,000  the  year  fol- 
lowing the  abrogation  of  the  reciprocity  treaty  is  certainly  not  Avithout  significance. 


In  Alassachusetts,  with  not  more  than  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Ontario  and  twenty  per  cent,  of,  its  occupied  territory,  the 
assessed  valuation  of  real  and  xiersonal  proxierty  in  the  same  three 
years  was  as  follows  : 


Year. 

Assfissed  value 
of  ])ei'sonal 
I)roperty. 

Assessed  value 
of  real  e.state. 

Total.  . 

1865 

$386,  079,  955 
430,  272,  298 
457,  728,  296 

$605,  761,  946 
651,  043,  703 
708,  105,  117 

$991,  841, 901 
1,081,316,  001 
1,  16.J,  893,  413 

1806 ' 

1867 

38  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


These  of  eourse  are  valnatious  in  a depreciated  currency.  In  1867  the 
average  premium  on  gold  was  thirty-nine  per  cent.  Eednced  hy  that,  the 
assessed  valuation  of  property  in  Massachusetts  was  $838,772,239  in 
gold,  or  about  $655  x^or  capita,  against  $236,851,512,  or  about  $131  i3er 
capita  in  Ontario. 

In  Ohio  the  assessed  valuation  of  real  and  personal  x)rox)erty,  in  1868, 
was  $1,143,461,386,  or  $816,758,132  in  gold,  equivalent  to  about  $325 
X^er  cax^ita.  Taking  the  Northern  States  of  the  Union  together,  they  un- 
doubtedly exhibit  on  the  average  more  than  double  the  value  of  x^i’op- 
erty  per  caxhta  that  is  shown  in  Ontario,  where  the  x)rox)ortionate  value 
of  x^rox^erty  must  largely  exceed  that  in  Quebec  or  in  the  maritime 
provinces. 

BANKING  CAPITAL  AND  CIRCULATION. 

The  caxiital  emxiloyed  in  banking  amounts  to  but  $32,753,242  in 
the  entire  Dominion,  of  which  $30,363,842  is  in  Ontario  and  Quebec, 
$2,060,400  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  $329,400  in  New  Brunswick.  An  active, 
vigorous,  and  enterprising  state  of  business  in  so  large  a community  of 
Xieoxile  is  clearly  imxiossible  with  that  limited  sum  of  caxutal  in  banking — 
a sum  equal  to  but  about  $8  xier  caxiita.  In  the  nineteen  States  north 
of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Missouri,  with  a xioxmla- 
tion  of  about  26,000,000  xieoxile,  there  is  a caxiital  of  $418,000,000  in 
national  banks  alone,  or  $16  xier  caxiita,  besides  the  cax)ital  of  banks 
still  doing  business  under  State  charters,  which  amounts  to  $15,000,000 
in  the  one  State  of  New  York.  In  the  New  England  States  the  national 
bank  capital  is  $37  per  capita,  and  in  New  York  the  total  caxhtal  in 
chartered  banking  is  $28  xier  head. 

The  currency  in  circulation,  banknotes,  and  Dominion  treasury  notes, 
has  rapidly  swelled  within  the  past  year,  from  $15,982,165  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1870,  in  Ontario  and  Quebec,  to  $25,514,169  in  the  same  iirov- 
inces  on  the  1st  of  October  last.  At  the  first-named  sum — less  than  $5 
Xier  caxiita — the  money  in  use  (making  full  allowance  for  gold  and  silver 
in  circulation)  was  as  much  too  restricted  for  an  energetic  state  of  busi- 
ness as  the  inflated  volume  of  currency  in  the  United  States  is  too 
stimulating.  The  xn’ocess  of  inflation  that  has  commenced  so  raxiidl^’  in 
the  Dominion,  however,  bids  fair  in  the  end  to  more  than  remove  all 
contrast  in  that  xiarticular. 


PUBLIC  DEBT. 

On  the  30th  of  April,  1870,  according  to  a statement  from  the  auditor 
general,  the  xmblic  debt  of  the  Dominion,  deducting  cash  and  banking 
accounts,  Avas  $99,584,807.  Ax)X>5U’ently,  however,  this  statement  did 
not  include  the  outstanding  Dominion  treasury  notes  in  circulation, 
of  which  $7,450,334  had  been  issued  in  October  last.  Ivclatively  to 
Xioxmlation,  this  debt  of  the  Dominion,  amounting  to  about  $26  x>er 
caxnta,  axixicars  trifling  in  comparison  Avith  the  debt  of  the  United  States  j 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  39 


blit  relatively  to  the  wealth  of  the  two  countries,  their  resources,  and 
energies,  it  may  be  questioned,  from  the  indications  heretofore  given, 
whether  the  disparity  of  the  burden  of  debt  is  so  great  as  many  in  the 
provinces  imagine.  Whatever  the  disparity  may  be,  it  will  certainly 
disappear  in  the  accomxdishment  of  the  policy  of  expenditure  which  the 
government  of  the  Dominion  has  laid  out,  with  refereni'e  to  political 
necessities  that  grow  wholly  out  of  an  anomalous  situation — such,  for 
example,  as  the  building  of  the  Intercolonial  Eailway  and  the  projected 
railway  across  the  continent  to  British  Oolumbia,  parallel  with  the  line 
of  the  American  ^lorthern  Pacific,  to  neither  of  which  undertakings 
does  the  commerce  of  the  continent  offer  any  encouragement. 

IMMIGRATION  AND  EMIGRATION. 

If  no  other  facts  existed  to  show  that  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada,  with  its  cheapness  and  its  lighter  taxes,  as  compared 
with  the  United  States,  are  not  conditions  to  be  intelligently  preferred 
by  those  who  are  free  to  choose,  the  facts  of  immigration  and  emigration 
show  it  strikingly. 

Out  of  74,365  foreign  immigrants  to  the  New  World,  who  landed  at 
Canadian  ports  in  1869,  only  18,360  paused  to  seek  homes  in  the  Domin- 
ion, and’  57,202  passed  on  to  our  Western  States.  In  1868  the  number 
reported  as  making  a settlement  in  the  Dominion  was  but  12,765,  against 
58,683  going  through  to  the  United  States.  For  the  year  just  closed, 
the  statistics  of  immigration  into  the  Dominion  at  large  are  not  yet  at- 
tainable. AVithin  a few  days,  however,  the  Ontario  Commissioner  of 
Agriculture,  who  has  charge  of  immigration,  has  published  his  report, 
from  Avhich  it  appears  that  the  measures  adopted  in  that  province  to 
attract  settlers  from  Great  Britain,  and  to  assist  their  removal,  have 
largely  increased  the  arrivals  in  Ontario  during  the  past  twelve’months. 
The  commissioner  reports  the  number  for  the  year  ending  December  31, 
1870,  at  25,290.  Although  to  a great  extent  this  does  not  represent  a 
natural  movement  of  immigration,  but  is  the  result  of  systematic  efforts 
tliat  are  being  made  in  England  by  various  societies  to  deport  some  of 
the  more  sufiering  classes  of  the  poor  population  of  that  country,  still, 
so  far  as  concerns  Ontario,  it  produces  a considerable  change  in  the  facts 
heretofore  existing.  But  if  Ontario  is  making  some  gain  of  population 
from  foreign  immigration,  that  province,  in  this  as  hi  most  matters,  is  a 
favored  exception.  AVithout  much  reasonable  doubt  the  other  provinces, 
and  especially  (Quebec,  are  steadily  losing  more  by  emigration  to  the 
United  States  than  they  gain  by  immigration  from  abroad. 

I am  indebted  to  Mr.  AA)ung,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  for  the 
following  statement,  compiled  from  returns  made  of  immigrants  arriving 
in  the  United  States  from  the  British  INorth  American  i)ossessions  for 
eleven  years  past : 


40  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


Tears. 

Xumber. 

Years. 

Number. 

I860  

4,  .514 

2,  069 

’ 3, 275 

3,  464 

3,  636 

21.  586 
32, 150 

1867  

6,  014 
10,  894 
30,  921 
40,  411 

1861  > 

1868 

186-3 

1869 

1863 

1870 

1864  . . 

Total - 

1865 

158,  934 

1866 

1 

But  these  are  more  than  doubtful  statistics  j nor  does  it  appear  pos- 
sible to  secure  any  trustworthy  enumeration  of  the  persons  who  come 
into  the  IJnited  States  from  the  British  provinces  with  intent  to  make 
this  country  their  home.  The  figures  given  above  are  obtained,  I be- 
lieve, from  returns  made  by  the  officers  of  customs,  in  connection ‘■with 
tlie  entering  of  household  goods,  which  are  admitted  free  as  settlers’ 
ehects.”  If  exact  to  that  extent,  they  would  only  represent  the  class  of 
immigrants  who  come  with  families  and  household  effects,  wholly  omit- 
ting the  perhaps  larger  class  of  young  men  from  the  provinces  who 
seek  their  fortunes  in  the  United  States,  and  who,  as  they  cross  the 
frontier,  are  in  no  way  to  be  distinguished  from  ordinary  travelers. 
But  even  for  what  they  purport  to  exhibit,  I fear  that  our  statistics  of 
provincial  emigration  are  not  to  be  trusted.  I have  reason  to  know 
that  some  of  the  returns  of  immigration  from  frontier  crossing  points 
are  almost  entirely,  if  not  wholly,  founded  upon  careless  guessing  on 
the  part  of  railway  agents  and  clerks,  as  to  the  number  of  persons  likely 
to  have  accompanied  a given  quantity  of  settlers’  effects.”  Perhaps 
these  are  exceptional  cases,  but  more  probably  not,  since  there  is  noth- 
ing to  compel  the  taking  of  the  trouble  which  accuracy  would  require. 
It  is  possible,  too,  that  the  aggregate  result  of  such  estimating  may  be 
not  far  from  the  true  fact,  but  that  is  a matter  of  no  certainty. 

As  for  the  large  class  of  immigrants  of  whom  no  account  can  possibly 
be  taken  when  they  cross  the  frontier,  Mr.  Young,  who  has  been  gath- 
ering information  on  the  subject,  thinks  they  may  be  safely  estimated 
at  10,000  for  the  past  year. 

All  definite  statements,  however,  with  regard  to  this  emigration  from 
the  provinces  must  be  made  and  received  with  considerable  doubt.  It 
can  only  be  said  with  certainty  (and  that  no  one  at  all  acquainted  with 
the  facts  will  dispute)  that  the  annual  movement  from  the  Canadas  and 
from  the  maritime  provinces  to  the  United  States  is  very  large.  The 
Dominion  suffers  in  no  respect  more  seriously  than  in  the  loss  of  the  en- 
terprising young  men  who  are  being  constantly  enticed  away  from  it  to 
seek  wider  opportunities  in  the  United  States  than  their  own  country 
affords ; some  of  them  to  return  after  a time,  but  the  greater  part  to 
establish  permanent  ties  and  make  permanent  homes  in  ‘‘the  States.” 
Such  are  to  be  found  everywhere  in  the  Union,  and  no  adopted  element 
in  the  American  population  contributes  more  to  its  stock  of  energy  or 
is  of  greater  value.  During  the  late  war  mau}"  tliousands  of  Canadian 
young  men  volunteered  in  the  Union  army  and  shared  our  national 


TEADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  41 

struggle  with  us,  the  larger  proportion  of  the  survivors  of  whom  are 
probabty  citizens  to-day  under  the  government  for  which  they  fought. 

Erom  the  province  of  Quebec,  where  the  circumstances  of  the  general 
population  are  growing  less  prosperous  rather  than  improving,  emigra- 
tion across  the  line  into  New  England  and  elsewhere  has  assumed  such 
proportions  within  the  past  two  or  three  years  as  to  become  a very 
serious  subject  of  discussion  in  the  journals  of  the  province.  It  is 
exceedingly  unfortunate  that  we  have  no  trustworthy  data  from  which 
to  calculate  its  extent.  There  are  two  migratory  movements  from 
Quebec,  one  periodical  and  temporary,  the  other  permanent.  Large 
numbers  of  the  French  Canadian  laborers  and  small  farmers  leave  their 
homes  on  the  approach  of  winter,  cross  to  the  United  States,  find  wdnter 
emj)loynient  here,  some  even  in  the  Southern  States,  and  return  to  their 
homes  again  in  the  spring.  How  this  number  compares  with  those  who 
l^ermanently  remove  themselves  to  the  United  States  it  is  impossible  to 
say.  That  the  latter  have  greatly  multiplied  during  late  years  we 
know,  from  the  importance  which  the  French  Canadian  element  is 
assuming  among  the  operatives  in  the  New  England  factories,  and  from 
what  is  acknowledged  by  observers  in  Quebec.  Intelligent  French 
Canadian  gentlemen  in  that  province  estimate  that  there  are  already 
more  of  their  race  in  the  United  States  than  at  home.  Said  one  of  the 
daily  newspapers  of  Montreal  in  October  last : Statistics  tell  us,  and 
any  one  who  has  traveled  in  the  United  States  will  confirm  the  fact, 
that  we  annually  suffer  a heavier  loss  through  native  persons  leaving 
the  country  than  the  total  figure  of  the  immigration  returns.  There 
are,  at  a low  computation,  half  a million  native-born  Canadians  now 
domiciled  in  the  United  States.  They  are  established  in  the  republic, 
not  because  they  prefer  that  form  of  government,  but  because  the  spirit 
of  enterprise  seemed  to  have  died  out  on  this  soil,  and  there  was  no 
field  opened  to  skilled  industry.’’  The  same  newspaper,  in  an  article  a 
few  weeks  previous,  had  stated  the  fact  that  “ our  farmers  realize  very 
little  more  for  their  hay  and  oats  than  they  did  thirty  years  since,  and 
the  consequences  are  that  farm  lands  are  declining  in  value  in  the  jU’o- 
vince.  The  returns,  minus  the  labor,  are  smaller;  the  margin  of  profit 
remaining  to  the  farmer  at  the  end  of  the  year,  after  paying  and  feeding 
his  men,  is  less.”  It  was  said  in  a public  address  by  one  of  the  promi- 
nent public  men  of  the  province  of  Quebec  a little  more  than  a year  ago  : 
“ The  emigration  of  common  laborers  to  the  States  is  something  actually 
alarming;  and  it  could  not  be  otherwise,  for  our  water-powers  are 
neglected,  our  mines  are  closed,  and  Ave  have  no  means  of  furnishing 
employment  to  our  people.”  Within  a few  Aveeks  past,  to  cite  one  iiiore 
authority,  the  leading  neAvspaper  of  the  city  of  Quebec,  the  Daily 
Chronicle,  made  the  folloAving  statement,  AAdiich  has  a tAAm-fold  signifi- 
cance: Unfortunately  it  is  a truism,  and  requires  no  demonstration, 

that  ship-building,  formerly  the  main  industry  of  Quebec,  has  almost 
ceased  to  exist,  and  that  consequently  our  laboring  population,  the  A ery 


42  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 

bone  and  sinew  of  tlie  body  politic,  were  commencing  to  seek  in  the 
adjoining  republic  that  employment  which  was  no  longer  to  be  found 
here.  Too  many,  indeed,  already,  we  fear,  have  removed  permanently 
from  our  province.’’ 

General  evidence  of  the  magnitude  of  the  emigration  that  goes  on 
from  the  Dominion  to  the  United  States  is  abundant,  though  the  statistics 
to  represent  it  in  defined  numbers,  with  tolerable  exactness,  are  lacking. 
What  is  true  of  (Quebec  is  undoubtedly  true  to  not  much  less  extent  of 
Uova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  and  if  Ontario  does  not  lose  poi)ula- 
tion  in  equal  numbers  it  loses  very  considerably  from  a class  whose 
young  blood  is  the  life  force  of  a country.  Against  these  losses  there  is 
no  equal  offset  or  exchange.  Emigration  from  the  United  States  to  the 
provinces  is  limited,  though  valuable  to  the  latter,  because  chiefly  con- 
fined to  men  who  go  there  with  a definite  enterprise  in  view,  and  gen- 
erally with  capital,  to  engage  in  lumbering,  or  mining,  or  salt  making, 
or  oil  producing,  or  general  si^eculation  and  trade.  Under  different  con- 
ditions, the  number  of  these  would  unquestionably  be  multiplied  to  a 
very  great  extent. 

PAETIAL  PEOSPIJEITY  IN  THE  DOMINION. 

I hope  I shall  not  be  accused  of  having  labored  to  make  a representa- 
tion of  circumstances  unfavorable  to  our  northern  neighbors.  I give  the 
facts  as  I have  found  them,  in  seeking,  without  preconceived  notions,  to 
ascertain  the  relative  situation  of  afiairs  in  the  two  countries,  which  be- 
came, as  I have  viewed  it,  a necessary  part  of  the  subject  submitted  to 
me  for  investigation.  I group  these  facts  here  to  show,  as  I think  they 
do  show,  that  if  that  which  appears  to  be  the  only  practicable  arrange- 
ment under  which  a natural  state  of  trade  between  the  United  States 
and  the  British  provinces  can  be  established,  involves  a change  in  the 
conditions  that  prevail  within  the  latter,  assimilating  them  to  the  con- 
ditions existing  in  the  United  States,  the  change  cannot  be  one  to  the 
detriment  of  the  people  of  the  x)rovinces,  and  cannot  form  a forbidding 
obstacle  to  the  arrangement. 

I know  and  I do  not  contradict  the  claim  to  prosperity  that  is 
asserted  in  considerable  portions  of  the  Dominion.  Prosperity,  upon  the 
moderate  scale  to  which  everything  is  adjusted  in  the  provinces,  does 
exist  throughout  most  of  Ontario,  in  the  city  of  Montreal,  and  in  several 
small  manufacturing  towns  that  have  grown  ui>  in  the  loAv^er  x)roviuces5 
a degree  of  prosperity  quite  in  contrast  with  the  aspect  of  affairs,  gen- 
erally speaking,  in  Quebec,  and  for  the  most  part  prevailing  in  the  mari- 
time provinces.  The  people  of  Ontario  are  very  comfortable  j many  of 
the  towns  show  more  life  than  they  formerly  did,  are  adding  to  their 
industries,  and  are  slowly"  growing.  One  branch  of  manufacture,  the 
woolen  manufacture,  has  obtained  quite  a root,  and  has  risen  to  consid- 
erable magnitude  within  a few  years  past;  so  much  so  as  to  diminish 
the  imi)ortation  of  woolens  nearly  a million  of  dollars  m I8G9  from  the 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  43 

importation  of  1868.  In  railway  enterprise  there  is  a noticeable  stir  of 
life,  stimulated  in  great  part  by  the  American  transit  trade,  though 
partly  directed  towmrd  the  development  of  the  ‘^back  settlements”  of 
Ontario. 

CO^mERCIAL  GROWTH  OF  MONTREAL. 

But  nowhere  and  in  nothing  else  is  the  display  of  really  energetic 
forces  equal  to  that  at  Montreal.  The  city  of  Montreal  has  certainly 
made  an  astonishing  advance  in  commercial  importance  within  the  last 
few  years.  The  conspicuous  feature,  and,  i^erhaps,  the  conspicuous 
cause  connected  with  its  commercial  rise,  has  been  the  establishment 
and  remarkable  success  of  the  splendid  line  of  ocean  steamers  which 
a single  Canadian  firm  has  placed  afioat,  connecting  Montreal  with 
both  Liverpool  and  Glasgow  by  regular  direct  lines.  Commencing 
in  1856  with  four  steamers  and  a capacity  of  6,536  tons,  this  great 
fleet  of  the  Messrs.  Allan  & Co.  now  numbers  eighteen  steam  ves- 
sels, among  the  finest  on  the  seas,  with  a total  capacity  exceeding 
42,000  tons.  The  rise  of  this  flourishing  Canadian  mercantile  steam 
navy  is  a more  notable  fact  by  reason  of  its  contrast  with  the  decline  of 
the  ocean  steam  shq^ping  of  the  United  States. 

DIVERSION  OF  AMERICAN  GRAIN  TRADE. 

Perhaps  it  is  owing  chiefly  to  the  organization  of  operations  in  com- 
merce incident  to  the  effect  of  the  establishment  of  such  lines  of  for- 
eign connection,  that  Montreal  began,  two  years  ago,  to  accomplish  a 
powerful  diversion  of  the  movement  of  our  Western  cereals  away  from 
'New  York.  The  very  extensive  sudden  transition,  particularly  in  the 
movement  of  wheat,  which  occurred  in  1860,  claims  serious  attention. 

It  appears  in  the  following  statement  of  flour  and  grain  passing 
through  the  Welland  Canal,  from  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Ontario,  the  quan- 
tity stated  as  going  ‘Go  Canada”  being  almost  wholly  destined  for 
Montreal : 


Quantities  of  flour  and  grain  xjassing  into  Canada  from  the  United  States  ; also  quantities  in 
transit  to  poi'ts  in  the  United  States  during  four  years  past. 


Tear. 

FLOUU. 

5VIIEAT.  • 

INDIAN  CORN. 

OTHER 

GRAIN. 

To  Canada. 

Transit,  to 
United  States. 

To  Canada. 

Transit  to 
United  States. 

To  Canada. 

Transit  to 
United  States. 

To  Canada. 

Transit  to 
United  States. 

1 

Jiarrds. 

Barrels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

Bushels. 

186G 

8,  102 

, 800,  :U4 

14,  90:} 

5,  0:}2,  071 

488,  401 

4,  250,  2:}2 

2(),  108 

20,  425 

1807 

4,  401 

1,  07:},  080 

2:},  804 

.5,  148,714 

295,  720 

5,  448,  144 

:},  128 

22:},  719 

1808 

o:},  540 

1,4.5.5,947 

87,  22:} 

7,  151,012 

.520,  7:}1 

5,  080,  990 

18,  .502 

805,  020 

180!J 

105,  oo:} 

, 1,  :}00,  054 

5,  458,  G!)2 

7,  990,  2:}3 

1, 180,  947 

7,  024,  8:}5 

05,  8:}5 

1,  248,  470 

The  statement  for  the  last  season  I Inave  not  yet  been  able  to  procure, 
but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  proportion  taken  to  Montreal, 


44  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 

compared  witli  tliat  passing  to  Oswego,  Ogdensburg,  and  Cape  Vincent, 
for  sbiiiment  by  canal  and  rail  to  ^few  York  and  Boston,  lias  increased 
rather  than  diminished. 

But,  noticeable  as  tlie  commercial  progress  made  by  Montreal  during 
a few  years  past  may  appear,  it  obviously  has  not  placed  her,  and  gives 
no  promise  of  placing  her,  at  the  height  of  importance  which  naturally 
belongs  to  the  chief  port  of  the  great  St.  Lawrence  outlet.  For  Montreal 
occupies  a position  where,  under  conditions  of  equal  rivalry  Avith  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Baltimore,  there  would  unquestionably 
have  risen,  to-day,  a great  metropolis  of  not  less  than  half  a million 
souls,  instead  of  a thriving  city  of  one  hundred  and  forty  or  fifty  thou- 
sand people. 

FAVORINH  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

The  moderate  degree  of  prosperity  that  exists  in  the  most  faA^ored 
section  of  the  Dominion  affords  evidence,  not  to  be  disputed,  in  proof 
that  the  Canadian  people  suffered  less  from  the  abrogation  of  the 
reciprocity  treaty  in  18G6  than  they  apprehended  or  than  others  ex- 
pected. The  expiration  of  the  treaty  happened  at  a most  fortunate 
time  for  them,  when  several  circumstances  combined  to  break  the  effect 
of  the  suspension  of  free  trade.  The  state  of  business  in  this  country 
Avas  just  beginning  to  settle  into  composure  after  the  upheaval  and  dis- 
turbance of  the  civil  war.  During  the  war,  and  for  some  time  after  it, 
the  exaggerated  and  incalculably  fluctuating  premium  placed  upon  gold 
by  the  mad  gambling  that  Avas  rife,  deprived  our  currency  to  some  ex- 
tent of  its  due  purchasing  power  in  the  Canadian  market,  and  intro- 
duced so  much  daily  and  hourly  uncertainty  of  exchangeable  Amlues 
between  American  and  Canadian  money,  that  transactions  in  the 
Canadian  markets  by  American  purchasers  were  made  difficult  and 
hazardous.  This  had  interfered  seriously  with  the  selling  of  Canadian 
liroducts  to  the  United  States  during  the  last  half  of  thefree  trade  period, 
and  Avhen,  otherAvise,  the  marketing  of  those  products  in  the  United 
States  would  have  been  enormously  stimulated.  At  times  it  had  no 
doubt  formed  more  of  an  obstruction  to  frade  from  the  provinces  than 
the  duties  since  imposed  Inwe  formed.  But  the  one  obstruction,  of  a fluc- 
tuating and  uncertain  purchasing  medium,  Avas  disappearing,  AAdien  the 
other  obstruction,  of  revived  customs  duties,  arose,  and  it  is  clear 
enough  that  the  immediate  commercial  effects  of  the  latter  occurrence 
were  A^ery  considerabl3^  neutralized  by  the  former;  so  that  the  people  ol 
the  iirovinces  did  not  feel  the  sudden  loss  of  free  trade  Avith  the  United 
States  as  they  otherwise  Avould  haA^e  done.  MoreoAW,  the  Southern 
States  began  about  the  same  time  to  become  purchasers  again  of  lumber, 
fish,  &c.,  from  the  proAunces,  which,  for  fiA^e  years  before,  had  had  that 
part  of  their  Amnican  trade  entirely  cut  off.  These  circumstances 
account,  I think,  for  the  otherwise  singular  appearance  of  the  fact  that 
our  importations  from  the  provinces  have  rather  increased,  on  the 
average,  than  declined  since  the  termination  of  the  recii)rocity  treaty. 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  45 
LUMBER  AND  BARLEY. 

Referring’  to  tlie  comparative  table  heretofore  given,  which  shows  the 
extent  of  onr  annnol  importation  of  several  of  the  chief  staples  of  Cana- 
dian production,  we  find  that  the  two  articles  of  lumber  and  barley  to- 
gether formed  one-third  of  the  entire  purchases  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Dominion  in  1869,  and  that  these  two  articles,  more  than  anj^ 
others,  have  exhibited  a total  indifference  to  the  terms  upon  which  they 
are  admitted  to  the  United  States.  In  both  cases  the  undoubted  fact 
is,  that  this  country  has  need  of  the  foreign  supply.  The  sources  of  our 
own  lumber  supply  are  rapidly  receding  from  the  great  markets  in  which 
it  is  consumed,  and  are  rapidly  being  exhausted.  Every  year  is  making 
it  more  a necessity  that  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States  should  buy  lum- 
ber and  timber  from  the  provinces.  Under  such  circumstances,  and  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  this  country  would  seem  to  have  more  interest  in 
the  conservation  of  its  fast-disappearing  forests  than  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  their  consumption,  it  may  be  well  to  consider,  without  reference 
to  the  general  question  of  reciprocal  policy,  Avhether  it  is  not  due  to 
American  consumers  that  the  present  high  duty  of  20  per  cent,  on  Cana- 
dian lumber  should  be  modified,  taking  another  step  in  the  - direction 
which  was  taken  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  when  the  duties  ou 
saw-logs  and  ship-timber  were  removed.  Much  the  same  considerations 
apply  to  the  arti(de  of  barley,  for  which  the  consumers  in  this  country 
are,  to  a considerable  extent,  dependent  upon  a country  whose  climate 
and  soil  are  better  adapted  than  most  of  our  own  territory  to  its  pro- 
duction. 

TRADE  WITH  THE  NGN-CONFEDERATED  PROVINCES. 

With  this  imperfect  discussion  of  them,  I submit  the  main  facts  which 
I have  collected.  Within  the  time  allotted  to  my  inquiry  I have  been 
unable  to  extend  it,  except  very  superficially,  bej^oud  the  provinces  em- 
braced in  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Our  trade  Avith  the  three  provinces  of  Newfoundland,  Prince  Edward’s 
Island,  and  British  Columbia,  which  remain  outside  the  confederation 
of  the  Dominion,  (although  British  Columbia  seems  to  be  at  the  point 
of  becoming  joined  Avith  it,)  is  represented  for  the  last  tAvo  years  in  the 
reports  of  Commerce  and  Navigation,  compiled  in  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Statistics,  as  folloAvs : 


1869. 

1870. 

Inipf)rts  

f 1,  737,  304 
2,  703, 173 
446, 664 

|1,  .581,  959 
3,  204, 668 
347,  360 

Doincstic  exports 

Toreigii  reexports 

RelatUely  to  its  extent,  this  trade  appears  much  more  faAwable  to 
the  United  States  than  our  trade  Avith  the  Dominion,  and  relatAely  to 
their  population  and  commerce  the  non-confederated  provinces  are  far 


46  TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


the  better  customers  of  this  conutry.  The  subject  of  our  relatious  with 
them,  moreover,  is  made  the  more  interestiug  and  important  by  reason 
of  the  unwillingness  that  their  people  manifest  to  attach  themselves  to 
the  British  colonial  confederation,  and  it  claims  an  examination  which 
I regret  that  I have  not  been  able  to  give  to  it. 

In  the  United  States  official  statistics  of  late  years,  only  a distinction  be- 
tween the  ^‘Dominion  of  Canada”  and  ^‘all  other  British  possessions  in 
North  America”  is  made,  so  that  our  trade  transactions  with  the  several 
provinces  cannot  be  discriminated.  Attempting  to  procure  returns  from 
the  several  customs  districts  with  such  a discrimination  made,  I suc- 
ceeded but  partially,  and  with  a result  too  imperfect  for  use,  except  in 
one  or  two  particulars. 

NEWFOUNDLAND  AND  PRINCE  EDWARD’S  ISLAND. 

Out  of  twenty-eight  collection  districts  from  which  I have  been  fur- 
nished with  statistics  relating  to  the  last  fiscal  year,  only  five  report 
transactions  with  Newfoundland  and  Prince  Edward’s  Island,  as  follows , 


Imports  m certain  districts  from  Newfoundland,  Cape  Breton,  and  Prince  Edward’s  Island 
during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870. 


Districts. 

Products  of  the 
forests. 

Products  of  agri- 
culture. 

Products  of  the 
mines. 

Animals  and  their 
products. 

Products  of  the 
fisheries. 

Miscellaneous. 

Total. 

Boston 

$621 

372 

$21,  767 
5,  877 

$1,  537 
121,  520 
2,  530 

$41, 167 

$79,  073 
81,  372 

$10,  431 

5,  447 

$154,  596 
214,  588 
2,  530 
29,  096 

New  York  ... 

Providence  B.  I ....  

New  Bedford  Wass  

29,  096 

Total 

993 

27,  644 

125,  587 

41,  167 

189,  541 

15,  878 

400,  810 

Domestic  exports  from  certain  districts  to  Newfoundland,  Cape  Breton,  and  Prince  Edward’s 
Island  during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1870. 


From  Boston  to  Xowfonndland 

From  Boston  to  Prince  Edward’s  Island 

From  Wilmington,  X.  C.,  (lumber  to  Newfoundland) 
From  New  York 


1299, 117 
105,  918 
2,  200 
1,567 


Total. 


408,  802 


The  foregoing  returns  no  doubt  represent  most  of  the  trade  carried 
on  during  the  past  fiscal  year  with  the  insular  provinces  named. 

MANITOBA. 

Our  present  trade  with  the  great  central  region  of  British  America, 
formerly  known  as  the  Bed  River  country,  but  now  politically  organized 
and  incorporated  with  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  under  the  name  of  the 
province  of  Manitoba,  is  imperfectly  shown  by  the  following  statement, 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES.  47 


wliicli  is  furuisbed  to  me  by  the  collector  of  customs  at  Pembina,  Min- 
nesota. It  exhibits  for  the  last  two  fiscal  years  the  imports  entered  in 
and  the  exports  cleared  from  the  customs'  district  of  Minnesota,  through 
which  the  trade  between  the  United  States  and  the  Manitoba  country 


necessarily  passes : 

1869. 

IMPORTS. 

Imports  entered  for  immediate  consumxition $60,  402  02 

Imports  entered  warehouse 151,645  22 

Total  imports 212,047  24 


EXPORTS. 

Export  of  goods  the  growth,  produce,  and  manufacture  of 


the  United  States 174,  913  00 

Exports  of  foreign  dutiable  goods 14,  548  05 

Total  exports 189,  461  05 


1870. 

IMPORTS. 

Imports  entered  for  immediate  consumption $34, 199  29 

Imports  entered  warehouse 186,142  57 

Total  imports 220,341  86 


EXPORTS. 


Exports  of  domestic  merchandise 152,  596  00 

Exports  of  foreign  dutiable  goods 20, 133  47 

Total  exports 172,729  47 


The  special  deputy  collector  at  Pembina,  Mr.  N.  E.  l^elson,  who  fur- 
nishes this  statement  to  me,  writes  that  the  entire  amount  of  exports  to 
Manitoba,  through  Minnesota,  is  not  represented  in  it,  for  the  reason 
that  large  quantities  of  domestic  goods,  such  as  tobacco,  sugars,  sirui)s, 
gunpowder,  matches,  liquors,  &c.,  are  entered  for  exportation  in  bond 
at  other  districts,  free  of  the  internal  revenue  tax,  and,  simply  i)assing 
in  transit  through  the  Minnesota  district,  do  not  appear  in  its  returns. 

> Tlie  same  is  true  of  a large  quantity  of  foreign  goods  reexported  to 
Manitoba.  The  United  States  imports  from  that  province,  which  con- 
sist almost  wholly  of  raw  furs  and  buffalo  robes,  are  i)robably  all  entered 
in  the  Minnesota  district,  since  the  large  shii)ments  made  by  way  of 
Iludson’s  Pay  go  abroad. 

Our  j)resent  trade  with  that  vast  new  region  of  richly  })roductive  ter- 
ritory in  the  basin  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  which  the  pioneer  forces  of  civili- 


3 0112  062135147 


48 


TRADE  WITH  BRITISH  NORTH  AMERICAN  PROVINCES. 


zation  are  just  preparing  to  invade,  is  inconsiderable;  but  its  fntnr 
possibilities  are  beyond  calculation.  The  time  is  approaching  very  nea' 
wlien  it  is  clearly  destined  to  give  a new  phase  to  the  question  of  rela 
tions  between  this  country  and  British  North  America,  and  when  it  wil 
bring  to  bear  upon  that  question  the  pressure  of  an  inexorable  geographi 
cal  necessity,  that  will  compel  it  to  some  solution. 


CONCLUSION. 

In  concluding  my  report,  it  is  proper  that  I should  acknowledge  th 
extreme  courtesy  with  which  I have  been  assisted  in  procuring  informa- 
tion by  the  members  of  the  Canadian  government,  and  by  all  of  its  offi- 
cials, as  well  as  by  those  of  this  Government,  to  whom  I have  had  occa- 
sion to  apply. 

Eespectfully  submitted. 

J.  N.  LARNED. 

Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 


O 


